Lucy BeginsAgain
by The Infamous Smile of MonaLisa
Summary: Lucy was happy for so long and had inwardly accepted her love for Natsu, but then the incident with Edolas happened and now, Lisanna is back. Lucy and Lisanna become fast friends, but seeing how quickly she was replaced in Fairy Tail's hearts, she left, leaving to start over again. With Natsu distraught and Lucy out with a new team, anything and everything will happen! M for reason
1. Chapter 1

"Ughhhh!" the annoyed Salamander whined for the tenth time that day as they boarded the train that would take them back to Magnolia.

"Natsu I'm sorry! I didn't notice what was happening!" I apologized. _Again_. Team Natsu (now with Lisanna) had gone on a mission to destroy a small dark guild a few train stops away. The mission had been going great when Lisanna slipped on the guild's roof, nearly plummeting to her death. I, Lucy Heartfilia, being the only one on the roof with her, jumped and grabbed her hand, pulling her back up to safety, but, unfortunately, also allowing the group of guild members that we had been ordered to keep outside and on the roof of the guild in before the inside half of the team was ready to deal with them.

Lisanna had been the first to stand out of the two of us and as she was offering her hand to me, Natsu caught sight of us. Immediately jumping to conclusions, he accused me of sitting down on the job and putting Lisanna in danger. Now, generally, I would have exploded at this, knocking his head to the wall like a coconut, but when I saw Lisanna shrink away from Natsu's anger as she began to confess that it was her fault, I cut her off, telling Natsu that it was, in fact, all my fault and reversed our roles as I recounted what happened.

We had still completed the mission, of course, but now the whole team was mad at me, minus Lisanna of course. "Natsu, please listen, Lucy was-" Lisanna began again, but was cut off by Gray.

"We know, Lucy just wasn't prepared. We're just happy you caught her in time!" He smiled warmly over at Lisanna, who sighed in defeat, something I just _had_ to chuckle at. Hearing my slight laughter, Lisanna looked at me and mouthed 'you don't have to do this'. I just shook my head and shrugged, shooting her another smile. She smiled weakly back before retuning her attention to the new conversation.

We had just gotten to our seat and everyone had taken one except for Lisanna and I. Seeing the predicament of there only being one seat left, I turned on my heel and sat down on the other side of the carriage, alone in my own box. Lisanna shot me another worried look but I motioned for her to sit with them.

"Are you sure, Lucy-chan?" Her voice was small and tentative, even though Natsu was already pulling her down next to him.

I laughed, happy to see the two old friends near each other again, no matter how badly broken beyond repair my heart was. "Don't worry, I can read in peace over here! Plus, it's the least I can do to thank you! And for the ladt time, call me Lucy!" Understanding, although not seeming to fully approve, she nodded, looking back to the group she was with. Within minutes, they were hollering with laughter, not exactly helping the pain in my chest as I peaked out over my book to them.

Ever since Edolas, Lisanna had been denying missions, but now, a month and a half later, we had finally gotten her to accept. During the short time together, Lisanna and I got along extremely well, but that doesn't mean that my heart didn't break every time I saw the way Natsu looked at her, or when he would ignore me in the morning and not show up at night, all to spend time with Lisanna. I had to admit, I missed my space heater and his obnoxious blue feline, but it was good to see old friends reunited.

I knew that every day, Lisanna, Mirajane, and the other girls of Fairy Tail, minus Erza, all saw my pain. Though they as well were happy for her return, they knew that it had quickly shattered everything I had built up with Natsu. In he blink of an eye, I wasn't even existing to him, but a background figure in his and Lisanna's love story.

But I didn't say a word. Every day, I went to the guild with a smile on my face, talked with the girls, read, and sat a bit with Team Natsu before making some see-through excuse and leaving before my tears could break through. I had grown accustomed to waking up a bit earlier in the morning in order to put on the extra make-up necessary to hide the dark circle and red blotches under my eyes from crying all night long, but Mira had begun to see through them the other day.

_I held my head a bit to steady it as I sat down at the bar. I was so absorbed in trying to right myself that I didn't even notice when Mira put my morning orange juice next to me. "Lucy, are you okay?" she asked when I made no move totals the drink._

_Hearing her voice, my head shot up and I sent the motherly barmaid a smile, attempting to ease her worries. "of course Mira!" her eyes narrowed a bit, but when she was that I wasn't going to cave to her anytime soon, she huffed. About twenty minutes later, she came back, a sneakily-vicious look on her face that made me swallow hard._

_"so, if everything's fine, then how are you and Natsu?" she was trying tk her a reaction out of me. I felt my body go stiff she and Levy were the only ones that had been given my outright confession one (very drunken) night. They never let it go, saying that "Drunk words are sober thoughts" or something like that._

_I glared deeply at her, an equally wicked thought entering my mind. "Another word about this to me or anyone and the world knows about Fried." her face went a ghostly white. The other night, I had heard her and Fried doing some not-so-polite activities in the kitchen behind the bar._

I chuckled, remebering how quickly she had dropped the subject, but cotinued to shoot me constant troubled glances. Others soon began to follow, realizing my disheveled appearances had to be for a reason, but I continued to brush them off, hoping that they would give up soon.

I didn't even want to even go on this mission, as it happened, but I was in desperate need of money and in order to do what I had decided on weeks ago. I had wanted to leave when they were on a mission, this mission to be exact, but it looked like I would have to wait until the next one.

Before I knew it, we were pulling into Magnolia. I stood quickly in order to keep up with the lovable dragon slayer, who was now bouncing away from the train in glee, but by the time I had gotten my bag, I saw Team Natsu already exiting the train station.

With a sad, knowing smile on my face, I followed, but went back to my house instead of the guild. I unlocked the door to my nearly empty apartment, having all my stuff packed in boxes with Virgo in the spirit world, waiting for me to settle down in another place, another town far from here where I could start over without denying this heart break like I had been doing for so long.

A tear slipped past my defenses as I grabbed one of my few remaining pieces of unpacked clothing. It was a jacket I had worn a few weeks ago, but that's not what made my heart drop. Wrapped within the jacket was five boxes, each containing another form of a charm that was inscribed "Team Natsu" on the front and "Fairy Tail's Strongest" on the back. Happy's was designed to be a collar, Natsu's a bracelet, Gray's a necklace charm to go on with his sword, Erza's to be a low hanging pendant, much like one of the pieces of jewelry that she had been drooling over a few weeks ago, and mine a choaker. I would have bought one for Lisanna but this was before we had ever gone to Edolas. I meant to give them out, but always felt shy when thinking about giving flame head a gift. I didn't think my heart would be able to take it if he rejected me outright like that, much like he had recently begun to, despite Lisanna's constant efforts to keep him with me.

I quickly swiped away the stray tears as I realized just how dark my room had gotten. It had been mid day when we returned, so how long had I been sitting there, wallowing in self pity? I looked outside, seeing the utter pitch black of the night and sighed. I changed and slid into bed, shutting the window behind me and locking it, knowing that without my protective dragon slayer, leaving the window open was a dangerous thing.

But the moment the idea of just how vulnerable I was without him got into my head, I began to sob, his name involuntarily escaping my lips over and over again until strong arms engulfed me. I turned and threw my arms around my loyal lion spirit, digging my face into the nook between his collar bone and neck.

He stroked my back, hushing me softly until my sobs recessed to hiccups and hiccups became sniffles. Slowly, he pulled back just enough to see my face, waiting for me to make eye contact with him. The moment I did, I saw the determined anger burning deep within his sad eyes and inwardly shuddered at the thought of who had done what to deserve Loke's anger. "Princess, do you want to leave tomorrow instead of waiting? I believe that there is no use in staying any longer and prolonging your sadness-"

I put my hand up, cutting him off. I knew I couldn't handle hearing much more of his honestly words, but I nodded, knowing he was right. I had been staying for selfish reasons, hoping Natsu would suddenly realize that he loved me and not Lisanna and come running to my side, begging for forgiveness and confessing his undying love.

Inwardly, I laughed with dry humor at the thought. No, he would never do that because he was in love with Lisanna, not that I blamed him. She was gorgeous, stunning, on the inside and outside, a pure maiden (not that I wasn't), not to mention his best friend. I had nothing against her and what hurt me the most, besides seeing the way that he looked at her, was seeing how quickly she had taken my spot with nearly everyone, even Levy, who had cancelled our trip to the bookstore and mall to fill Lisanna in on the guild's romances and all the best books that had come out since she had left. _So I really was just a replacement..._

As Loke shifted behind me, laying me down, I felt him arms slowly retreat, but when I made a move to grab for him, I felt him stiffen. "Lucy..." he whispered sadly. I had never asked him to stay the night with me before, but at this moment, I needed someone to be with me, just to hold me and make me feel safe once more. I didn't even have to respond. He slowly slid back into bed with me, holding me tight to his chest as I drifted off to another night of dreamless slumber.

**I will always try to update weekly, but no promises because of homework and work :/ but still, i hope you like it so far, and no, I'm not a NaLi fan, but I won't hate her either. I will just hate the idea of her and Natsu together... XD But I promise, it gets a lot happier after this chapter, well, progressively at least. It will end up in NaLu...eventually... :) **

**Please Review so I know how you all feel and feel free to PM me if you want to say or discuss anything else!**

**~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa**


	2. Chapter 2

Standing outside the guild doors made my legs turn to putty and I quickly grabbed onto Loke for support. "Princess!" He jumped, swiftly catching me as my legs completely gave out. "Lucy, are you sure you can do this? You don't have to say goodbye..." The words sounded more like a plea than anything else. I looked up and gave my lion a weak smile before forcing myself to stand once more.

"I'll be fine, you big cat!" I tried to make the mocking sound light hearted, but Loke saw right through it. He frowned deeply, but otherwise didn't push it. "Force close, Gate of the Lion, Leo!" before he could object, there was a bright light and he was back in the spirit world. "Sorry, but I need to do this on my own. I'll call you back out later," I promised to the empty air around me.

Ever so slowly, my legs feeling as though they were made o led, I managed to climb the short set of stairs before quietly swinging open the guild's door, slipping in thoroughly unnoticed. I could feel the lack of pep in my step as I walked over to Team Natsu, but if seemed that the others couldn't. They were so absorbed in Lisanna's story that they hadn't even noticed I had sat down next to them. At the end of the story, which I had missed most of, the table began to shake with laughter. Lisanna, finally peeling her eyes off of the main group, noticed me and gave me a wave and a large smile which I attempted to return with a full heart.

But the moment I raised my hand to wave at her, Natsu swung his arm around her shoulder and gave her a small peck on the cheek, exclaiming how lucky he was to have such a funny girlfriend. _Girlfriend, huh? Well, I always knew this was going to happen..._ I felt tears well up behind my eyes, but blinked them back as I forced a wave at Lisanna, hoping she hadn't noticed my moment of weakness. If she did, she, thankfully, didn't show it.

Before the others could even notice me, I stood and walked hurriedly to the bar where Mirajane stood, cleaning her usual glasses. By the time I sat down, my head was swimming, eyes drowning in tears, heart thumping loud enough that I was sure Crux could hear it within his slumber in the Spirit World. My body was shaking with the uneven heart beat, making me probably look like a broken wind up toy, an action that did not go unnoticed by the guild's demon.

I could feel her eyes on me, boring into my skull as I kept my face hidden behind my bangs and hands. She watched me steadily for a moment and, by the sad sigh she released, I knew she had just seen and heard my pathetic interaction with the new Team Natsu. "They still love and need you, you know." Her voice was sweet, honest, true, but that was only by her perception. As far as I could see, the new Team Natsu was stronger and more efficient than the old one, but she wasn't going to dare voice _that_ opinion out loud! Especially not to Mira.

I just shook my head, desperate to hold back the tears, knowing that there were three very talented noses that would be sure to smell the salty liquid. Before I could even try to utter the words, there was a bright flash and Loke was next to me again. Though he had directly disobeyed my orders, I couldn't be happier that he was here to help me.

"Loke! Wha-"

"Is the master in at the moment?" he was quick to cut off Mira, knowing that it was a mistake for me to have come today. _I'm sorry, Loke. I should have listened to you!_ I would have to express my thoughts to him later, when I could actually speak clearly. I assumed Mira nodded because Loke quickly wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me into his arms as I used him for support.

We neared the back staircase, but before we could even take the first step, Loke placed me against the wall and whirled around, slamming a shadowy further into the opposite wall in a matter of seconds. "What do you want, Gajeel?" His voice was a daring hiss and I could help but remember the anger that had danced in his eyes the night before.

He ignored the vicious spirit and instead made solid, unwavering eye contact with me. "Where are you planning to go, Bunny Girl?" His voice was hard, but it was underlined with worry.

"None of your busin-" Loke began to answer, continuing to hold Gajeel to the wall, despite his lack of effort to break free, but I cut him off.

"I don't know yet. I haven't really decided on a single place, just figured I'd travel until I found a place that's right for me," I mumbled, suddenly worried of what exactly I was going to do.

Bu my worries flashed out of my mind as I heard Gajeel snarl lightly. "Look at me, Lucy!" My head snapped up and I re-met his gaze. _Did he just use my real name?_ "As much as it sucks for me to admit, you're like the little sister I never knew I needed, so if you let anything happen to you while you're gone, I'll never forgive you! You got that?" His voice was a hiss, his eyes threatening me, daring me to tempt fate and get myself hurt, but I knew that this was his way of telling me to keep safe.

I smiled softly at him, but he looked away. "You'll be the first person I call if I'm in that much danger, I promise, Gajeel. But," now I hissed, catching the Iron eater off guard for the moment. "You had better take care of Levy while I'm gone! You got that?" Now he smirked, rolling his eyes but nodding. I knew he would never let Levy get hurt, but it was still nice to see the assurance. Loke let him off the wall and Gajeel began to walk away when I grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop of the edge of the shadows. "And... Don't tell anyone please. Make sure everyone figures out in their own, no help from each other, that includes Team Natsu and Levy, okay?"

He shot me a sad glance, seeming to want to add something, but decided against it and nodded. "Whatever you want, Bunny Girl." I let him go and he went back to Levi's side, peering over her shoulder at her book.

I felt a smile creep up on me. They were just so cute together! I was happy that the dragon slayers were finding their women without troubles. Even Wendy had Romeo, though she'd never dare to admit it and when we confronted her, she face lit up like one of Natsu's flames and she made a run for it, hiding from Mira and her matchmaking skills for hours.

"Are you ready to go see the master, Princess?" Loke's soft voice broke be from my memory.

I gave him a grateful smile before whispering, "Yes, I think I am." Loke nodded and began to walk, but as he checked behind us for any spare guild members that may be following us as well, I saw the terrifyingly horrible look come across his face again. I desperately wanted to ask him what was wrong, but I knew that would just hurt the Lion's pride.

So instead, I allowed him to half drag me up to the Master's office where he gave two sharp knocks. There was a moment of silence before we heard Master welcome us in. Without looking up, he motioned for us to take a seat, but we didn't plan on staying long, so we stayed standing, a motion that caught his attention. "Lucy, why are you here? Shouldn't you be with your team?" I flinched a bit, but Makarov was not looking at me now, but at Loke, who was standing by the door, frowning deeply with closed eyes. His ears and eyebrows twitched slightly, obviously not enjoying whatever distant conversation he was hearing.

"Master, I have a request." His head snapped to me once more, surprised at the shakiness of my voice. I cleared my throat and began again. "I request that you remove my Fairy Tail tattoo. I wish to leave."

His eyes went wide. The little master stood on top of his desk, walking to the edge while eyeing me curiously. "What is going on, Lucy? Has your father done something again?"

I glared deeply. "No, and it would not matter to you if he did or didn't. That is my business alone!" My voice no longer shook, but was suddenly stronger than ever. "I will ask once more, remove my tattoo, _please_?"

He shook his head. "Where will you go, Lucy? You are Lucy of Fairy Tail and you have been for a while now. Why would you so suddenly want to leave? You are Lucky Lucy of Fairy Tail, Lucy of Fairy Tail's Strongest, Lucy of Team Nat-"

"Enough!" I yelled, feeling my body shake again. I didn't want to yell at him, I didn't want to end it this way! But he was pushing me far past my breaking limit. I forced myself to looked Master in the eyes, knowing that was the only way he would understand just how serious I was. "I am _not_ Lucky Lucy nor will I be Lucy of Fairy Tail anymore. I don't wish to be here anymore and that is all. I was never one of the strongest here, heck even little Wendy with healing magic, an _extremely_ non-destructive force is more useful than I am, and I was never part of Team Natsu. I was a place holder and that is all." I saw his face fall, but his eyes enlightened with a deep anger. _Is he mad at me because I'm being so selfish? No, that's not how he is...than why is he so angry?_ "So now, remove my tattoo!" I was sure anyone near the bar would have been close enough to hear me, meaning the Dragon Slayers who were paying attention would have heard to.

Master held my gaze for a few minutes before sighing in defeat. "If that us what you really want, that is fine. Come forward, child, so I can remove the mark." I walk cautiously towards him, feeling Loke's eyes on my back when I began to move.

Master waved his hand over mine and my tattoo slowly began to fade. My Fairy Tail mark, the only thing that had identified me for so long now, was gone. I was officially on my own, and as much as my heart seemed to crush further into oblivion, I felt a tiny spark within me that told me this would be good, very good, in fact. I was now Lucy, not Lucy Heartfilia, heir of the Heartfilias, not Lucky Lucy, not Lucy of Fairy Tail's Strongest, and _not_ Lucy of Team Natsu, the _cheerleader_. I was Lucy, just Lucy, and for someone reason, the title felt a little bit better.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't make myself smile at Fairy Tail's long loved master, so I locked eyes with him once more and bowed. "Thank you for all that you have done for me, but I think it is about time I headed out." I turned to the door where Loke was silently waiting in the doorway. "Oh, and Master Makarov, please don't tell anyone. If they find out themselves, that's fine, but I want everyone to find out on their own. Please don't let anyone tell each other."

"For you? Of course, my chi- I mean, Lucy." He had barely caught himself, but I wasn't sure if I was happy he did. Maybe I had wanted to be loved once more while I was here, but I wouldn't let anyone know that. Without turning back to him, afraid my resolve would break, I went to Loke's side. He closed the door behind us and we hurried down the stairs.

As we came to the center of the guild, I glanced around, hoping to take in one more sight of my past home, my past family, my past nakama. In the corner, Gajeel had smoothly wrapped his arms around Levy as she reprimanded his lack of reading, causing her to blush a deeper red than Erza's hair. I cracked a smile as I moved on to see Macao and Cana arguing, but Cana's lips slurred as she tried to pull a new beer barrel away from Macao, signifying that she was thoroughly drunk. I rolled my eyes and quickly caught sight of little Wendy sitting silently across from Romeo, both of whom were blushing deeply, possibly deeper than Levy, as they stared at the single milkshake in front of them. They leaned forward at the same time and took a sip, but when they met each other's eyes, they shot backwards, swallowing hard and looking away from each other. _This was no doubt Mira's doing!_ I let out a small chuckle and continued to look around until I laid my eyes on the final table.

Lisanna was giggling while sitting next to Natsu, who was smirking over at the blushing Ice Mage. Gray had his arm softly laid on a sleeping Juvia's waist. _She may have just fainted... Again. If she didn't, she will when she wakes up!_ Gray muttered something and Natsu laughed loudly, bringing Lisanna closer to him. She glanced nervously at Natsu and then around the guild, but I guess that was just her getting used to her new relationship with an old friend. I felt my smile falter a bit, but I held it tightly, knowing that it was a ridiculous idea for me to be mad about something I had no control over.

I turned to the bar now, where Mira was wiping down the counter around Erza's cake plate, to which she was currently digging in to, making a bit of a mess. Mira wore a wide grin, but as I walked over, I saw it change to a worried look. "Lucy, wha-"

"Oh, Lucy!" Erza exclaimed, not taking her eyes off of her cake. _Poor Mira. She can't get a single, complete sentace out today..._ "I needed to speak to you!" My heart froze. Did she know? Would she ask me to stay? Would she give me other options? Make me feel better? "We're going on another mission, but it's a small one that only needs five people, and we promised Juvia she could come, so would you mind sitting this one out?" she was still eating, not even bothering to see my reaction. I stiffened, but Loke put his hand protectively on my shoulder and I immediately felt better. Well, not really, but I was reminded that I needed to stay strong right now. "I mean, this will give you a chance to train so you won't have to be saved all the time!" She sounded happy, like this was the greatest idea since sliced bread.

Mira's eyes and (inwardly, I knew) Gajeel's talented ears were paying close attention to this short interaction. I smiled at her, hoping she wouldn't noticed the tears behind the eyes. "Of course I don't mind, Erza. I don't want to weigh you all down anymore, so I'm happy to stay behind if that means you all could get the job done easier! Plus, I know how much you all have missed Lisanna, so as long as she's with you guys, I'm sure everything will be fine." _So fine that you won't even notice I'm gone..._

Erza finally looked up and seemed to be about to say something when she looked behind me, locking eyes with Loke. They held each other's stare as I stepped towards the bar. I took a few shaky breaths before reaching my unsteady hand into my bag and pulling out a small sack of jewels and gave it to the stunned Takeover Mage. Mira gasped as she felt their weight in her hand. "Lucy, what's this?"

"It's for Team Natsu's debt to the guild. I've been keeping a fair track and figured I could at least pay you back before the new team destroys even more..." I grinned sheepishly, but the action was still fairly forced.

I vaguely noticed Erza stiffen next to me. _Did she finally notice my word choice?_ I chanced a glance at her and saw her staring viciously at her cake once more. _No, of course not. I should know better by now than to think these hopeless thoughts._

"Lucy, please, it's okay, I promise! If you want to pay us back you can just work here for a bit..." I shook my head and Mira's voice trailed off.

"I'm afraid not, Mira. I've got to go train and... Stuff."

"Well, when you're done with doing... Stuff, you'll come back, right?" her voice was beginning to break. I smiled brightly at her, my heart filling at the idea that I wouldn't be completely forgotten here.

_Mira, you're too nice for you're own good...you at least deserve to know._ "Mira, I believe master has something to tell you." She nodded once, understanding my message while holding back tears.

"See you later, Lucy," she murmured, running out from behind the counter to hug me.

I held her tightly back. "Goodbye, Mira. Goodbye, Fairy Tail." I felt Loke's hand on my shoulder, and in a flash, it was all gone.

**I was so insanely happy about all the reviews and follows on my first chapter/story that I decided to pre-upload this chapter! And yes, Natsu is a huge idiot, but he as well as the rest of the guild. And Lisanna is really nice in the manga/anime, so I felt nothing against her and decided not to make her horrible. **

**Please review honestly! I appreciate all feedbacks! Thank you to those who are already supporting me!**

**~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa**


	3. Chapter 3

"Loke you bastard..." I hissed under my breath, boarding Magnolia's train. The smart ass lion had decided to take control while I was still weak and brought me into the spirit world. Not that I was overly mad at him for doing so, since he had good intentions, such as allowing me to cry my eyes out, comforting me along with all my other spirits and giving me time to explain to all of them the situation. But, there had been a bit of trickery behind the kindness.

_My tears were finally beginning to dry as Loke and Taurus began to fight over, well, my body. Loke of defending it, not allowing Taurus into his home, but Taurus pulled out his axe, desperate to "be the one to hold me tight in my moment of weakness". I couldn't help myself as I began to giggle, causing my spirits, even Aquarius, to smile._

_"Loke, just let him in before he destroys your house," I sighed. Mumbling under his breath something about the perverted bull touching me, Loke sat back on the couch between me and Aries. He wrapped an arm around my waist and allowed my to bury my face back into his neck._

_I felt a bit bad, holding onto the love of her life this way, but she had already assured me that she understood the weakness and knew that I would never come between the two of them. I was so grateful to her as Loke held me on his lap. "I'm sorry I'm so weak right now, everyone. You all deserve a stronger master than me-"_

_"Don't say that, Princess!" Virgo's voice raised as she shot out of her seat, which was an extremely out of character thing for her to do. "You're strong, stronger than all of them, but you're heart broken."_

_Gemini, who had transformed into Mira, knowing that probably only she could make me feel better, nodded, patting my hand gently. "She's right, you know. But either way, you can stay with us as long as you need!" She beamed at me and I felt a small smile tug at my lips._

_"Wait, she cant though!" Aquarius exclaimed, suddenly sitting straight up. Loke stiffened under me so I looked up at him curiously, but continued to listen to my water zodiac. "Remember? For every day she spends here, it's seven months in Earthland-" she stopped short as I jumped off of Loke's lap, nearly snarling as I turned to him._

_Loke began to chuckle nervously, pressing into the couch with his hands up in a defensive position. "So that was your plan, you selfish little cat!" My body began to shake with anger. I had already been in there 8 hours at minimum, and if each day is equal to seven months, than I've been in here for... "Two and a half months?" I screeched, brandishing my whip in anger._

_"Is it time for punishment, Princess?" Virgo asked, rather excited when she saw the whip slice through the air._

_A wicked idea came to mind as I locked eyes with Loke. He swallowed hard and began to run out his door, far out of my range of sight. "Actually, bring him back here in five minutes and I'll think about it-" she took off without a second thought._

_It was only two minutes before the beat up lion was thrown back into his own den. Feeling sorry for the defeated cat, I allowed Virgo to place him softly on the couch without punishment for either of them, something I'm sure Virgo would take out on him once I left._

_"Thank you guys so much for all this, but I really do need to be getting back." The smiles began to disappear as they nodded. Capricorn opened the portal for me and I hugged each of them, giving one last thanks before stepping through and landing at Magnolia's train station._

Stretching quietly as the train chimed the name of the newest destination, I blinked awake from my fairly peaceful memory. _Is this my stop? _I looked outside and smiled. It was beautiful! The station alone seemed to be its own little world of musicians and architecture. The inside was lined with intricate carvings of ancient stories and spectacular sculptures, all representing different versions of beauty. Every few feet, there was a different musician playing a tune all their own in front of a different shop. I grabbed my bag and ran off the train, not even caring if this was my proper stop or not. This is so...

"Beautiful, right?" A voice appeared next to me. I squealed in fright as my head snapped sideways to see the mysterious voice. A young man in a black vest top with a white undershirt and black dress pants stood next to me, standing about two inches taller than myself. The little amount of skin that showed allowed me to see that he was slightly tanned, a little darker in certain parts, making a tan line on his hands like a glove of some kind. He had to be no more than half a year my elder. Noticing my reaction, he chuckled. "Relax, I work in the shop and am on my break. You looked a bit confused, so I figured I'd see if I could be of assistance."

I was still wary of him, but I couldn't hold back my sigh of relief. He chuckled again. "I'm Cory, and you are?" He extended a hand to me.

I glanced at it quickly before smiling. "Lucy, my name is Lucy."

He smirked at me as we let each other go. "You were pretty jumpy. Afraid I might be some sort of trouble?" His tone was mocking, but there was a real question to it.

"A little bit," I admitted, scratching the back of my head while laughing nervously. "I am a Mage, so I run into trouble more often than not."

He looked over at me, spinning fully to take all of me in. His eyes widened in disbelief. "You're a Mage? Who actually fights? With what?" I laughed at him, sincerely enjoying, yet feeling pridefully damaged by the utterly shocked look on his face.

"Yes I really figh-"

"Look out!" I was cut off by a stranger a few feet away pointing and hollering at a sudden noise, the distinct, and fairly familiar sound of a building's wall crumbling.

People began to run to the exit, screaming as though the world had ended. I felt myself sweatdrop, muttering, "It's just a wall falling, jeez." I could feel Cory's curious eyes on me once more, but my own were scanning for the danger, the threat that had caused the sturdy-seeming wall to fall. There was a sudden, extremely childish laugh from nearby and I whipped around, only to be met face to, well, rock hard chest. "Ow," I whispered, wanting to desperately rub my nose, but when I locked eyes with the boy in front of me, I felt paralyzed.

Onyx had nothing on these mismatched eyes who now seemed to be boring down into my soul, seeing every bit of me in a single glance. One eye, black with silver specks, seemed to block out all other senses, making them the current center of my entire world. The other eye was the reverse, silver with sharp, black specks, and stunned me silent. The man didn't blink, didn't flinch, but seemed surprised that I was holding his stare. He tilted his head slightly to the side, eyes suddenly becoming distant before they snapped back to the present and a smirk lined his face. Before I could question him, he yanked me to his chest and crushed his lips onto mine.

**Hey guys, sorry this is so short. Semester mid-terms are coming up and I've been bombarded with homework, but either way, I'm going to keep trying to update for you all! I've already written part of the next chapter, so I'll upload it the moment it's done! And at the request of some of my friends who I live with, and whose OCs will be making quite the appearance in this story (you just met two of them), I may start up a version of Fairy Tail based on our lives and interractions out here! I'll post if I need any OCs, but either way, thank you all for the support!**

**~The Infamous Smile of Mona Lisa**


	4. Chapter 4

_My first kiss! What the hell! It's with a complete stranger! Well, I mean, it's not like he's bad looking...well, his eyes weren't bad looking, didn't really look at the rest of him yet...But my first kiss, wasted away, gone, in a nothing special moment- HOLY MAVIS HE'S STILL KISSING ME!_ Coming back to my senses, I pushed the young man off of me with only a slight difficulty. He stumbled back a bit, but quickly regained his composer.

Even though I was fumming, I figured it was okay to take a good look at just exactly what type of person had taken the virginity of my lips. The young man in front of me had midnight hair that spiked much like Natsu's in the back while in the front, he had a few bangs that had moved from their side placement into his face, but he seemed still too stunned to notice. His skin was fairy average, except for the slightest of palings, showing that he either wasn't much of an outside person or wasn't much a day person. He wore long black jeans, a deep green tank top, and a black jacket, but the lack of effort in the outfit was lost on him. It was as it he was wearing royal garments, though I doubt most people who saw him cared much about his clothing.

After a moment, he smirked a bit, checking over his shoulder as the guards ran past us, shouting, "I think he went this way!" or, "No, this way!"

Either way, the moment the guards were all gone, he let out an audible sigh. "Thanks for that," he chuckled wickedly. "I know it was a little off guard bu- hey, why are you crying!" his eyes suddenly widened as I felt a tear slip down my cheek.

I hadn't mean to start crying, but the thought of having used lips instead of pure ones to give to the love of my life stung more than expected.

"Good job you damned idiot," Cory chuckled behind the mysterious man who turned to are at him. Cory threw his hands up in defense but continued to laugh. "Relax! If you have the jewel, let's get the others and head out!"

The boy turned back to me, eyeing me carefully as I attempted to hold back my foolish tears. His head tilted in confusion and he opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the sound of running feet. He didn't turn, still staring at me, but I looked around him to see the new pair that joined us.

They panted, hunching over and balancing their hands on their knees, desperate to catch their breath. The girl, who was closest to me, wore a long-sleeved red and white plaid shirt that was unbuttoned in the front, showing her full chest and toned, tanned stomach under her low-cut white half-shirt. She wore white shorts and white, knee-high riding boots. Her light red hair was in a short pony tail, finishing her southern look."Lu- Lucas! We got away, bu- but me, I mean- we need to hurry! They caught a gli- glimpse of us, so they may cir-" the girl's heavy southern accent was cut off by her companion, who was now standing straight up, static directly at me.

"Who's she?" he asked, but his heavy voice seemed distant, as though he didn't actually care what he was saying. No one answered him, but instead, watched him very carefully. His eyes slowly glassed over and I felt a cold shiver go up my spine, shaking me a bit. His gaze was different then the boy Lucas'. His held no mercy, as though it was his right, his job to peer into my mind, roaming over and through my emotions and memories. His short, brown hair was ruffled a bit as he stood before me in a long-sleeve blue shirt and long dark jeans, brown eyes holding mine without hesitation. Before I could react, his head snapped towards Lucas. "First of all, that was really messed up to just kiss her. That was her first kiss." Lucas looked at me, eyes widened with clear shock, something that poked at my pride a bit, but I ignored it. "And second of all, bring her with us. We need to move now."

Lucas nodded once and, without my consent, grabbed my upper arm and began to pull me. They took off in a hard sprint, dashing away from the crumbled mess of a train station and dragging me along with them. Usually, I would have fought, grabbed my arm away, but the way this group interacted, they way they trusted each other made me feel so comfortable with them.

Lucas continued to stare at me as he ran though, surprise and concern dancing through his unique eyes. I flushed a bit, but picked up my pace so he wasn't pulling me so hard anymore. We ran along the busy streets, attracting the attention of many people who barely managed to dodge us, some actually having to dive out of our way. Alex and Cory shouted apologies to the crowd while the girl just growled at anyone who touched her. Lucas stayed silent though, seeming indifferent to what was happening outside of this team. After turning down a few streets, the crowds began to lessen and allowed the team to begin to slow to a walk.

No one said a word, but continued to walk until they came to a small jewelry store. As the group entered, Lucas stared at me questioningly, not knowing whether or not to bring me in with them, but Alex put a firm hand on his shoulder and nodded. Without a second thought, Lucas brought me in with them. I didn't question anything as they waited in the small store.

A few moments passed and Lucas dropped his death grip on my upper arm, clearing his throat, allowing the noise to echo around the room. There was a small crashing sound in the back and a few R-rated words were spewed in the back before a man the size of Master Makarov hobbled out from a doorway. He stopped in front of Lucas, holding his hand out expectantly. Lucas dipped his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small, blue gem, placing it in the man's hands. He studied it for a moment before nodding to Lucas and walking into the back room.

The moment the two men left, the girl was suddenly in front of me, curling her lips back. "Who the hell are you and what do you want with us?" I flinched a bit, taking a small step back in order to get some space between us.

"She's innocent, Maybell. She's just had a hard past. I didn't want her to be left behind yet again," Alex murmured, watching me carefully, as though I could break at any second. I froze. _Who in hell are these people and how do they know so much about me?_ "I'm sorry that this is all so sudden, Lucy, but-"

"How do you know my name?" I squeaked, backing up towards the door and feeling for the handle. Alex sighed, walking towards me.

"Lucy, please just give us a few minutes to explain. I you want to leave afterwards, we will let you, but think about this," he took another step closer to me, towering over me by about two inches. "You trusted us when we randomly pulled you. You felt safe with us, even when you knew we were being chased, so why run now?"

_Damn it, he has a point..._ I stopped reaching around and nodded, slowly allowing Alex to pull me back towards the group. As he did, Lucas came back out with four small pouches and handed one to each of his teammates, keeping one for himself. We headed outside and the group walked in silence once more, but huge smiles plastered their faces and their steps seemed a bit lighter.

We walked for a while before coming to a thin tree line. I stopped. No one in hell was I going into a forest with unknown people. Lucas was the first to notice my halt and walked back to my side. "Look, I know we didn't get a great, normal start, but Alex has some sort of faith in you and wants you to come with us. He's stubborn if he doesn't get what he wants, so please, just walk to our housing area for a bit, let us, well, him explain everything, and if you want, you can leave." I studied his calm mask, but saw something edging underneath. Curiosity? Wonder? What is Mavis was that about?

"No. I want some other form of protection than just a promise." my voice was solid, surprising Lucas a bit. _That's right! This is the first time he's heard me speak!_

Cory came over now, standing next to me and staring at Lucas. Lucas and him held a hard stare before Lucas nodded and took my hand, beginning to pull me. I struggled a bit, but it was only half-hearted as he brought me into the woods. I tripped slightly, but Lucas quickly steadied me. I tried to fight back again, but with nothing to fight for anymore, I couldn't bring myself to really want to leave.

The tripping happened another four or five times before Lucas finally had enough. Sighing, he swung me into his arms and walked. I felt my cheeks heat up at I pushed against his chest. "He-Hey! What do you think your doing? Put me down!" he rolled his eyes, unaffected by me and my complaints.

"Relax, we're almost there anyway. Either let me carry you or risk a broken ankle with the way you stumble around here-"

"Hey you were pulling me!" I hissed up at him, momentarily forgetting my predicament. He snorted and glared down at me. I swallowed hard, but held his glare evenly. His mismatched eyes bore into mine once more and his expression softened slightly, mouth dropping open a bit.

A throat cleared beside us and both of us snapped away from each other, Lucas grinning while setting me down and me putting the cool back of my hand to my cheek, trying to stop the hot blush from showing on my cheeks.

I looked around the rather large clearing we had gotten to. Soft, light green grass lined the floor under the not-so-strong sunlight of the late afternoon. In the thickness of the surrounding trees, Lucas pointed to a barely noticeable brown plank. I looked to him, waiting for permission and, the moment he nodded, dashed across the field, vaguely noticing how soft the grass felt against my sore feet. Nearing the brown plank, I slowed and gaped in awe as a full tree house came into my sight. It was no small tree house either, but one large enough to take up three thick trees. Around it, ropes connected to four similar tree houses that were only slightly smaller.

"Whoa," I breathed, spinning underneath the well-hidden houses for a moment before crashing into a well-toned chest. Looking up, I saw Lucas grinning down at me. "Where are we?"

Now, the while group smiled, big and proud. "Well Lucy, we're where I want you to stay for a bit with us." Alex's clear voice rang out as I continued to survey the area. I could nearly hear his smile.

"And where exactly is that?" I asked, my earlier predicament of being dragged by an unknown group and possibly held against my will (despite their promise) coming forward once more. But as I looked around, I had a solid feeling that my curiosity would force me to stay here mo matter what they said.

"This," Cory chuckled now, stepping forward and motioning around him. "Is home."

**Hey guys, I've been feeling liek these chapters have been really short. Have they? Please, tell me if I'm not meeting expectations. I'll try to upload as often as possible in order to make up for the lack of length in my chapters, but if you all want any chance at getting an answer to questions that could give away huge parts of the story, you'll have to PM me, because it's ****_extremely_**** unlikely that I'll give away a huge secret on the comments!**

**But either way, I wanted to thank you all for your constant support and reviews, even some of the tougher ones that have been PMed to me, but they are still helpful! Quick note/reminder though: I am completely Nalu with slight Lolu tendencies when I watch/rewatch an episode that have amazing Lolu moments! And there are not going to be any surprise people from Lucy's childhood! Although I do love those stories (sometimes) this will not be one of them! **

**If you have any questions or personal comments, feel free to PM me!**

**~The Infamous Smile of Mona Lisa**


	5. Chapter 5

"Any word from her yet?" Gajeel hissed lowly to the barmaid. Sullenly, she shook her head, not even surprised when the Iron Dragon barely suppressed his growl. He took another swing of beer before crashing it onto the counter top.

_Two months...two months since Bunny-Girl's been gone... That damned Fire Face hasn't even noticed yet! Even his girlfriend has! Heck, even the drunk and the Master's kid have noticed already!_ Gajeel's plaguing thoughts were clear on his face, and, despite what his better instinct told him, he stayed at the guild, waiting for any word from Lucy, but never saying a word about her. The others seemed to slowly beginning to notice that something was missing, but only a few knew what was actually happening.

Lisanna had noticed it the night that Lucy left when Mira came home crying. There was not need for questions, just consoling as they held each other close, wordlessly expressing their hatred for the situation.

With Cana, it had been a complete accident. About a month into Lucy's leave, she had been doing a fortune telling for Natsu and Lisanna's relationship without their knowing. There, she saw a crossroad and heartbreaks, along with a _blonde_ woman. She had spent two days silently looking for Lucy before consulting Mira about it, who broke down in tears and eventually filled her in, but forced her into the same promise she and Gajeel were bound in. Of course, the most difficult part had been to keep her from tearing the Fire Dragon-Slayer apart in rage. Gajeel had to trap her in a metal boy with Mira in her Satan Soul mode sitting on top of it for about six hours before she finally promised to not kill Natsu..._on purpose of course..._

For Laxus, who had always kept a slight eye on the girl with such a _rare_ magic, almost as rare as Dragon-Slaying itself, he had noticed the lack of her scent immediately. Gajeel had noticed the Slayer's muttering as he searched and almost couldn't stop him from confronting Natsu about it. Gajeel had sprung from his seat next to Levy, startling the little bookworm, and pounced on Laxus, springing the whole guild into a fight. Afterwards, Gajeel hinted to Laxus to speak with Makarov about it. The next day, Laxus went out on yet another mission, but came back rather quickly, snarling something about her having left no trace to follow. This continued to happen after nearly every mission he went on, leaving only the few who knew to feel the heavy depression behind those few words.

Mira shook her head as she came out from behind the bar to serve dishes. She had been hoping to hear something from the blonde by now, but she was beginning to realise that Lucy may have been serious about cutting all ties to them. Permenantly.

"Mira..." Lisanna whispered as her sister walked by, the blank look on her face once more. She unwrapped herself from Natsu's arm, earning a confused look from her boyfriend, but she flashed him a small smile, reassuring him enough to keep him at the table as she ran after her sister. "Mira," she whispered in her sister's ear, effectively gaining her attention. "She'll send us something. She won't leave us in the dark and you know that." The barmaid smiled softly at her little sister, squeezing her hand before going back to her spot behind the bar. She had to admit, she was surprised.

Mirajane knew that Lucy and Lisanna had become great friends in their short time knowing each other, but she hadn't expected Lucy's leave to effect Lisanna as much as it had, especially since Lisanna had originally been slightly jealous of Lucy and Natsu's relationship. Of course, after hearing all of the stories about Natsu and Lucy's missions together, Lisanna had completely backed off of her little crush, realizing just how utterly perfect the other two were for each other.

Of course, that made the match-maker only even more confused when she had accepted being Natsu's girlfriend, but Mira never interfered, figuring Natsu would realize that Lisanna had only been a small crush compared to his obviously overwhelming love for Lucy. But on that first day of their relationship, Lucy left, leaving the couple with no intereference...

Cana tapped Mira on the shoulder, dragging her from her troubling thoughts. They gave each other small, reassuring smiles before going their seperate ways again, Cana attempting yet another reading to see what was happening with Lucy, and Mira finding yet another meaningless task to busy herself with. Looking around, the Animal Take-Over Mage noticed the drunk snarling of a certain Iron Dragon-Slayer, and the obvious absence of Laxus. After seeing the activities of the other knowing Fairy Tail members, Lisanna sighed, clenching her hands tightly at her chest. "Lucy, please, send something soon. They need you, we need you, more than you ever know."

**I GOT MY WRITING STUFF BACK! HECK YEAH!**

**Sorry, momentary lapse in control...But either way, I made a deal with my friends that if they give me my writing stuff back, I'll upload a different story about us as a team along with Team Natsu, so...yeah...**

**Anyway, this is a short chapter, so I'll probably upload another one sooner rather than later, but still, I love to hear what you all think! Some of your reviews are so close to the later plot that it actually scares me, and others are just in some other universe!**

**~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa**


	6. Chapter 6

"What are you saying exactly?" Lucy hissed, looming over Alex menacingly. The Mage cowered in fear at her feet after being forced into the corner. When they had all climbed up the trees to the house, (Lucy having a bit of trouble in the process) the blonde immediately began demanding answers. And answers she got, though they didn't make her very happy.

_"Okay so what exactly is all this? Where am I anyway? You're mages obviously but what guild? What do you use? Whe-" _

_Lucy was cut off by a sudden snort from a very quiet boy, the one she had been talking to kindly to at the train station before she was so _rudely_ kissed, something she had yet to forget to get revenge on. "Can you just shut up already? You haven't stopped talking since we got here!" Without meeting her eyes, the boy who she suddenly remembered as Cory dropped into a plush chair, his head hanging low to match the bored tone of his voice. _

_Lucy was shocked._ Did he really just say that?_ Before Lucy could say anything or demand anymore answers, a loud, southern accent bellowed above her, hollering, "Oh so HE can be a pissy lil' jackwagon to her but I gotta be some lady-in-waitin'?" Her voice clawed up her throat like a hiss, but the Celestial Mage didn't feel threatened or insulted the slightest by it. The tone had become familiar to her after all this time with Na- Fairy Tail. Yes, Fairy Tail had made it easy for me to recognise the not-really-threatening-you tone of a deep friendship that no longer needed perfect kindness to stay complete._

_"Yes- Uh, no!" Alex stuttered, trying to keep wary of the new side of Lucy. _

_"Alex," Lucas muttered softly from the corner. "I am beginning to think that you should explain why we brought her here, to all of us."_

_The whole team, including Lucy, stared at him as he took another deep breath. "Look, Lucy," Alex walked towards the blonde who was still, somehow, fairly calm. "We're not the average mages, here, all of us are forms of Dragon-Slayers-"_

_"Hey!"_

_"What the hell, man?" Cory yelled, glaring deeply at Alex. Lucas shot the two a silencing glare, curious as to where Alex would take this. _

_The two began to sulk in the corner as Alex continued with Lucy. "You know Dragon-Slayers and their life-styles pretty well from your old guild." Lucy flinched _visibly_ at the memory of Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up past memories... But, look, we've all been through hardships here, and with you going through all this, wandering around, especially at how physically weak you are, you shouldn't be alone. You're magic is as rare and wanted as ours is, and in your current state, you're a target for fatal attacks, so I figured that you could stay with us for a while, train, and even join the team perm-"_

_"Before she decides any of that," Lucas interrupted, nearly hissing now. "Release the mind control." Alex froze up. "No one reacts that calmly to being dragged around town, into the woods, forced up a tree, and offered to join a new team full of Dragon-Slayers."_

_Alex sighed and nodded, and not a moment later, Lucy crashed to the floor on her knees, gasping and holding her head. The flood of emotions hit her like a brick wall. Pain, fear, agony, reluctance, curiousity, and annoyance, all hitting her at once. Need, the need for _Him _was mixed in with each of the emotions, ripping what remained of the good mood Alex had attempted to keep her in. Lucy nearly snarled. She wasn't about to let _Him_ get her down, not now, and never again. No one moved to help her, all watching in amazement as she shakily began to stand, one hand on her heart and the other being used to steady herself. No one had ever recovered from Alex's mind release so quickly._

_When Lucy was finally standing steadily, Lucas moved forward to her side, watching Alex warily to make sure that he wouldn't influence her mind anymore. "So Lucy, what do you say to joining our team?" Lucy swallowed hard, still slightly gasping for air, but when she looked up and around Lucas, she met Alex's eyes with the deadly stare of her own. "Lu-Lucy?" Lucas stuttered. It was rare that such a powerful mage as Lucas got scared, but this girl's glare was doing a pretty good job at it._

_She took a shakey step towards Alex and he instantly shrunk back in clear fear. The room was silent for a good two minutes before Lucy's outraged shreak filled the air with a, "Did you just call me weak?" _

Now Lucy stood over the cowering, half-beaten Dragon-Slayer with the rest of his team cowering in fear behind her. _So much for little miss vulnerable...all we have to do is get her mad and we could probably take down an entire dark guild..._ Cory thought with a dry humor. He cleared his throat and straightened up, taking a step towards the slowly-calming blonde. "Hey, Lucy, you didn't answer us about our offer! It's a pretty big thing to us! It's not like we offer this to just anyone!" His loud, yet calm voice startled Lucy from her anger. _Gray..._ Her heart sank once more as he was only met with Cory's hard stare, none of her wanted nakama in sight.

She looked over to Alex once more before sighing in defeat. "Look, it's just a lot to take in. I lost everything when I was younger, and I was just beginning to get it all back, but..." Lucy bit her lip, desperately attempting to keep it all inside.

"Betrayed?" Lucas guessed.

Lucy shook her head. "I have not right to feel betrayed. He wasn't my... It wasn't my happiness to have in the first place, so I'm not surprised it's gone." A sad smile played on her quivering lips as she kepy her bangs over her eyes.

"Maybe that wasn't where you were supposed to end up, but that doesn't mean you should give up on any form of happiness," Cory muttered from behind her as he rubbed his head.

"Look, I can see into your mind. I'm a Mind Dragon-Slayer, so it's sort of what I do. I know about what you've been through, and that's why I brought you here. I want you to have a new start." Lucy's wall broke and tears poured over for the second time that day. Alex's eyes went wide as he waved his hands in a panic, yelling, "No! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry! Don't cry!" He shook the blonde and laughter began to rise through the tears, surprising the four.

"As much as I don't agree with your methods of telling me this, or getting me here, I've decided something." She turned and smiled at the team of Alex, Maybell, Cory, and Lucas. "I accept. I'll join your team!"

~Back at Fairy Tail on the other side of Fiore, Natsu cringed, gasping slightly at a sudden pain on his guild mark, gaining the attention of his team and Makarov, who sat not too far away at the bar. "Natsu, are you okay?" Lisanna asked, looking over her boyfriend in worry. He shook his head for a moment, trying to clear it from the sudden shock he experianced.

"No, I mean, yeah, I'm fine. I just felt like, I don't know... Like something's... off. Something's wrong..." He looked up to meet the partially worried, yet mostly annoyed eyes of the Master. They held a steady glare for a moment before Natsu looked away, unexplainable guilt swimming deep within him.

The Master began to growl under his breath, but Mirajane managed to hear most of it. "So you think _she's_ okay?" She whispered hopefully, eyeing Gajeel who, from across the guild, suddenly perked up at the indirect mention of _her. _

Makarov nodded, but the look on his face was far less happy than they thought it should have been. Laxus, who had begun to tune into the conversation, Gajeel, and Mira had signaled Cana and Lisanna with mere looks to listen to the Master, who seemed to know why Natsu had flinched in such a way. Noticing his children's worry, he shook his head to reassure them. "She's fine, but she's joined something new. In just a short time, she's officially left us for good and that idiot hasn't even noticed yet, let alone gone after her to get her back! She's the whole reason he's been able to stick around this long, the whole reason he's gotten so strong, so determined! The whole reason that he is the way he is, dammit! And the only reason I haven't squashed that damned moron is because of _Her_ request, but I can only hold out for so long..."

Around the guild, six terrifying and silencing dark auras began to arise as Makarov, Mirajane, Lisanna, Gajeel, and Laxus entertained the thought of torturing the ignorant, all-too-happy Fire Dragon-Slayer, who suddenly and inexplicably began to feel like he should be running for his life...

**So, now you know what Alex is and a bit of a hint at what they all are, but you'll learn more about the rest of them later on, probably in the next chapter. **

Reader713**: Yes, this is still NaLu! Remember that basically everyone in Fairy Tail loves Lucy, either as a sister or as a woman doesn't matter. Laxus wants to protect her in a similar way as Gajeel, he just won't admit that he's getting soft for her, but more of that will come later in the story.**

EchizenRyoma**: As you've read, they are all Dragon related mages, meaning that, technecally, they are considered to be stronger, but every team has their faults. They're not better exactly, but there are going to be some things that correspond with Team Natsu's behavior and others that make Lucy feel better about being with them, preventing her from going home to Fairy Tail.**

ichigolover (Guest):** Gehe...keep thinking that... wait until you see what happens later... you'll be knocking everyone's head at one point or another**

XxxDarkLoversxxX:** There will be some slight LaLu moments, along with tiny other pairings as more people notice the disappearance, but Laxus thinks of Lucy more as a sister than anything else, but I guess what I plan for him, Gajeel, Gray, and Natsu later can be counted a bit LaLu, as well as GaLu, GraLu, and, of course, NaLu.**

Mystery-Lizzy:** Thank you! I feel a bit bad for making people cry but I cried while writing it so I guess we're even...**

Hguidry2671 and Zimme-NaLu**: I'm going to update whenever I finish a chapter so don't worry! And with Laxus and Gajeel, well, please read the abover responses! Arigato!**

**The reviews are always appreciated and always give me knew ideas for filler chapters! Thank you for your support! Oh, and please pay attention to timinf, because I may put in some time skips later on if I decide that nothing new will be happening there.**

**~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa**


	7. Chapter 7

I sighed in frustration from my newly-claimed spot at the bar. It had been three months since Lucy had been gone, a month since Poluchka, Max, and Nab had all found out about Lucy being gone.

Poluchka had pretended not to care, complaining about the fact that that the only human, besides Wendy of course, that she had begun to enjoy was gone, but otherwise kept quiet, agreeing not to say a word to anyone. Of course, I had been able to hear her complaining long after she left the guild and could very clearly hear her hopes for Lucy's health and return.

Max and Nab had been hanging out by the mission board two days later, talking about the most troublesome teams and latest experiences when Nab suddenly stopped. He had looked around and found Team Natsu, but goose bumps rose throughout his body as he noticed the missing blonde.

"Where is she?" he had whispered, immediately gaining the attention of Cana and I.

Max looked at him, rather confused. "Where is who?" He looked over to where Nab was

watching and froze as well before screaming, "Holy Mavis! Where's L-" I had never punched someone so fast in his life. Max went flying to Cana, who proceeded to pull him into a back room by his shirt collar and Nab, who was thrown to the side by Max, flew into Mira, who politely asked him to follow, and when he suspiciously refused, threatened him with Demon Soul. He stopped refusing after that.

Over the next three days, the two boys could be seen next to either Cana or myself as we were the only two continuing to drown their sorrows with excessive alcohol, although Lisanna had joined them one of those days, late at night. With the help of her sister, she cried out her guilt through drunken tears and, despite all of us assuring her that it wasn't her fault, only felt worse that she had accepted Natsu's offer. She had clearly admitted that she had only wanted a relationship like this with him when they were young, but when she had been sent to Edolas and Lucy came in, it was clear to the world that the two belonged together.

Even when she came back, Lisanna said that it was still painfully obvious, despite the switched

rolls, how perfect the two were for each other. One was always teasing the other, blushes and whines flying in every direction as well as orders and punches, but despite all of that, they were always with each other, occasionally threatening to leave, but never following through as soon as their partner began to beg and plead for forgiveness. They were always there for one another, whether over stupid things such as inwardly cheering for each other in guild brawls or in the heat of serious battle where, despite being much weaker than their respective partner, they stayed for each other, risking death just to make sure that the other kept safe.

"So why did you accept?" I had trouble keeping the snarl out of my voice. I mean sure, I felt bad for the girl, feeling all this guilt with no way to relieve it, but I didn't feel bad enough to be completely nice.

A light blush coated her cheeks as she sighed, obviously mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. From what I had seen, Natsu could tire these girls out pretty quickly. "I guess- HIC- I guess that after he had been with Lu- HIC- cy Ashley so long in Edolas, I was hoping tha- HIC- that I would be allowed to have some time with him here as my own- HIC- again before she came…" Selfish depression and hiccups cut her off and she was soon escorted home by her equally drunk sister, who I swear must have been taking lessons from Cana to still be walking with the amount of alcohol she had downed. After that day, I had stopped doubting the sincerity of her sorrow for Lucy's leave, much to Mira's joy.

But today was different, today was tense, anxious, as though all of us were connected through some ominous feeling that something Lucy-connected was going to happen. Now, it could have just been in my head, but the fact that it was nearly noon and Mira wasn't here seemed to signal that something had happened. Cana, who had been grumpy all morning due to Mira's absence, meaning the absence of her alcohol as well, huffed at me as I sat next to her. "Time count?"

"92 days…and counting," I muttered back, slouching over the bar. Levy was on a mission, so I didn't have my usual distraction, and Gray and Natsu had been on their best behavior all day, thanks to Erza being is a horrid mood because there was no cake out yet, so I had no one to fight, and Pantherlily was currently doing his best to avoid Happy at all costs, fairly angry that he had not noticed that his beloved nakama had been gone for so long. For the first few days, my exceed had merely ignored him, but because of his increasing anger on the situation, he had taken to staying away from the guild for longer periods of time in an attempt to resist the tempting urge to torment the obnoxious feline.

She huffed once again and I looked up to notice that Laxus had sat on her other side, a frown deeper than usual on his face. I raised an eyebrow at him and he signaled Cana and I to lean in. "I caught her scent on my last mission-" Cana nearly screamed at him to take her there when I threw my hand over her mouth.

"Let him finish, you drunk!"

She gave me a solid glare after my hiss, but nodded in agreement. Laxus smirked a bit at our exchange, but otherwise continued. "It's fairly fresh, and it was clean, but it smelt…confused, I guess is the best way to put it-"

"What the hell do you mean 'it smelt confused'?" Cana hissed through my hand, which was still covering her mouth, muffling her slurry voice.

Laxus and I shared a look and rolled out eyes, knowing that this conversation would be so much easier with just dragon slayers. "If an emotion is really strong, it changes a person's scent. Gajeel or… Flame-Head over there could probably decipher her scent better than me because they're more familiar with it, so can I continue now? It's kind of important!" Cana glared even harder and I felt a shudder go down my spine. In this moment, I'm pretty sure she could take down Erza… "I'll take that as a yes. So, I followed it around the town for a bit, before coming to the forest. I tried to track it through, but her scent was mixed with a few others."

"How many? Was she safe? Scared?" My blood began to boil. _No one better dare touch my sister…_

"She smelt fine, but it was about…four, five? I can't tell. There were a few scents that lightly crossed it, so I lost her scent, but followed the others and came up to a guild called-"

"Wolftail." Our group jumped about three feet in the air as Makarov's hiss reached our ears. "I know, this just doesn't feel right without her here, but please stop tracking her. She'd be very angry if she knew that you guys were keeping tabs on her." He sat and took another beer from Lisanna, who had been listening in while filling in for Mira.

"How do you-" Laxus began, but a sudden slamming of the doors effectively silenced the guild. The darkened sky and booming thunder outside didn't help calm us as the one and only Demon Soul stood in the doorway, scanning silently over the guild.

Her eyes met ours and we knew what this was about. "Laxus, Lisanna, Gajeel, Cana, Master. Come with me…Please." Her voice, dark and gravelly, should have terrified the rest of the guild far enough into sobriety to remind them to mind their own business, but, as usual, someone was stupid enough to interject.

"What's going on? Is there a fight?" Natsu jumped up, fists already aflame. Mirajane shot him a look that clearly made his skin crawl, so he went to his back-up plan. He dashed over to Lisanna and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, causing her to freeze up. I could tell that now that she had admitted her lack of emotion and guilt, it was becoming more difficult to stay in a relationship with the Flame-Brain. "If Lisanna is going, so am-"

"Shut it, Natsu," Laxus nearly snarled, pulling Natsu away from his girlfriend without much needed force. "This doesn't concern you." Natsu went to argue but Erza put a hand on his shoulder and he sighed, defeated. _Good you lousy son of a bitch…You don't even see how badly you're fooling yourself. Had it been Lucy, you would have fought much harder._

We followed her from the uncharacteristically silent bar, closing the doors behind us but clearly noticing the continued lack of noise from within. She nodded towards the street and we followed, going over bridges and along the stream until we hit… "Lucy's apartment? What are we doing here?" Her scent was no longer tainted with alcohol, so I was surprised that she had been daring enough to break the tense silence.

Without a word, Mira opened the door and Laxus and I shifted slightly into fighting stances. There was a scent in there, not Lucy's. Not Fairy Tail's. "Relax, boys." The Demon waved us inside and we all took a seat, Laxus and I still prepared for battle as footsteps could be heard coming from the kitchen. A young boy, no older than myself, with short, shaggy brown hair and glazed over eyes smiled goofily at us as he entered, plopping himself down onto the floor across from us without hesitation. "Everyone, I would like you to meet Alex, Lu- Lucy's new…" She clenched her teeth, fighting back obvious tears. I noticed Alex looking up at her in worry, but ignored it, more focused on Mira herself. "One of Lucy's new teammates."

* * *

**Sorry this took me so long, Minna. School's been very imposing on my personal time and my only means of wtiting was broken, so I had trouble getting back to this story, but I should be updating again soon. Thank you everyone who reviewed but if you have any questions, feel free to PM me. It's a lot easier to answer them that way! **

**But quick question for the next chapter:**

**Do I continue with the guild's update, or go to Lucy and see how she's holding up? **

**Oh, and major NaLu coming up in a few chapters, so please excuse the extreme lack of it for now!**

**~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa**


	8. Chapter 8

"Again!" I raised my weak arm and lashed out at the aged oak tree once more with my whip, hissing as my arm screamed in retaliation. "You ain't focusin', Lucy! Get yer 'ead in the game!" Maybell snapped at me.

I glared over at her, but after a month of training with them, I learned to stop yelling back so often. Over the course of the past month, we had decided that one, they would help me train, become new, stronger, and with each of them having a different specialty, it had become surprisingly simple to plan out a training regimen, and two, that, if I wanted to, after I became stronger, I would join their guild, Wolftail, and along with it, their team. I had yet to give them a solid answer about that, so I still had no guild mark, nor had I actually _seen _the guild itself, but it was clear after I put up with them yelling and bickering around me so much and not storming out and off to another city, that I was planning on staying for a while.

With my new regimen set in place, Alex had become my first trainer. Since he was a Dragon of the Mind, one that could see into, change, and inflict pain through the mind, he had to be spiritually and emotionally strong, not to mentioned balanced. Over the past few weeks, he had mediated with me and lecturing me over the importance of balance, life and death, happiness and sadness, joy and angst, hurt and comfort, as well as self-confidence and independence versus confidence and dependence in others. It surprised me at just how calm and mature he suddenly became while speaking about this all, as though meditating suddenly gave him a thousand years of wisdom.

But for some reason, he had suddenly disappeared one morning, leaving a note that he had something to take care of and would be back shortly. He instructed that I moved onto Maybell's training, which she was a bit reluctant to accept, but after a sharp glare from Lucas, she escorted me out to the field. This was only the third day of training and I thought I was going to hit _her_ with my whip if she didn't stop yelling.

Though it was nice to finally figure out what she was: a Venom Dragon-Slayer, in other words, a much more deadly version of Cobra. Cobra's techniques may have had more openings to be ingested through, but they were much weaker than Maybell's. _From what little information I've been told, it seems as though she uses her venom as an actual whip to slice up an opening for her venom to get into the bloodstream…like prey and predator…Until I see how she does this, I probably shouldn't piss her off too badly…_I felt a shudder quake through me, rattling my bones against one another.

I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard her sigh tiredly. "Look, Lucy," her voice was tired and warn. _What in Mavis is she so tired about! All she did is yell at me for the past four hours!_ "I understand that this is so new to you, all of this, but you have to trust me."

"Wha-t do yo-u mean? I- have be-en listen-ing thi-this who-le ti-time!" I hissed between pants, only to see her shake her head. She walked over to the small cooler we had brought out with us and tossed me a water bottle which slipped through my shaky finger tips. I belt over to pick it up, only to look up and see that Maybell had been watching. "What?"

"You ain't used to trainin', are ya?" I felt my glare deepen and she chuckled, obviously unfazed. _Maybe I should have taken scary-lessons from Erz- Mira. Yeah, Mira is scary too…_ My glare softened as I once again felt tears come to my eyes, but I shook my head quickly to rid myself of them. I was already angry with myself for allowing Alex to break me that first night, for allowing him into my mind once more as he pulled forward memory after memory of Fairy Tail until he found the one of Natsu, and when tears began to swell up, he immediately followed it with the one of Natsu's arm around Lisanna. I didn't stop crying until I fell asleep on Lucas' bed, which he was loaning to me (despite my argument that I was fine with the couch) until they got me my own. After that fiasco, I was sure not to let them see me like that again. Of course, with the beating he got, Alex was sure not to try something like that again, as well.

"Maybell," I whispered, sitting on the surprisingly soft grass. Her eyes flashed towards me, something deep swimming in them, but I couldn't decipher it. "How am I supposed to deal with it all? I mean, he was there, he helped me, for so long just always there for me, and I loved him, but then he was…was…"

"Gone." My head snapped up and I saw her looking up at the sky, obviously distracted in her own world.

"Yeah, I guess that's the only way to put it… But how did you-"

"Look," she snapped, abruptly standing. "Are we here to train or gossip? Train!" I stood with her, dusting my green pants off. At Virgo's suggestion, I had traded out my usual outfit for, usually, sweatpants and a colored, plain tank top. When I came near disagreeing, Maybell had agreed, saying that the boys were perverts and would have nose-bleeds if they had caught the slightest panty-slip while training. "Now pick up yer whip and twist yer wrist, just like I showed ya! I want ya to shatter that 'ere target!" I smiled a bit, the pain of the memories slipping away as I heard her accent get thicker with excitement. I drew back my hand for the first shot when I heard her add in a much softer voice, "One day Lucy, I'll tell you why I know." I looked over to see a small smile playing on her lips and I froze. Since I had been here, I had yet to see her smile. I had seen her grimace and sneer and smirk, but never a true smile, until now at least. And I couldn't help myself as I smiled back. "If you hit the target, of course." And the smirk was back….

* * *

"I still don't think it's right-"

"You don't have to," Alex interrupted, chuckling with dry humor. "It's just facts. They each have their own infatuations that are distracting them."

Gajeel raised an eyebrow at Mirajane. "You _sure_ we can trust him?" She gave a single nod, giving a reassuring smile to the slightly nervous Alex. It hadn't been his idea to do this. For that matter, he was just going to send them a letter to assure them that she was safe, but he knew that someone would come after Lucy and she just wasn't ready for that yet.

After visiting the post office (where Fairy Tail had their main mail slot) every day for over a week, he finally spotted her. It took a single word to get and keep her attention: _Lucy._ He originally thought that he may have killed her with the way that she went flat pale and ridged, but when she suddenly whipped around and stared the Slayer down, the crack running down her face told him that she was just as terrifying as rumored. Mira yanked him outside by the ear, transforming more and more into her infamous Satan Soul with each step and, after throwing him through the side of a brick building and pressing his face deep into the concrete, she finally decided to hear him out. After the full explanation, she heaved him back off the ground and ran him to Lucy's apartment, hissing at him to stay there while she got the others and promising lethal consequences if he refused to listen

Now, Alex shrugged and sat back in his chair as Cana and Lisanna shared a look. "So let me get this straight. Natsu's too obsessed with my return because it gives him hope that his father will return too as well?"

"Yup! After his father left, you were his best friend and you were the next thing to leave," He saw her face fall and quickly added, "Not on your own accord, of course!" He cleared his throat and looked over the others who had now spread out over the room. Gajeel sat on the edge of the couch, eating the third leg of what used to be Lucy's kitchen table. Mira, after taking her anger out on said table, had transformed back from Demon Soul and sat next to her sister on the bed. Laxus and Cana we sitting practically on top of each other, Laxus' arm wound lightly around her waist as they relaxed on the opposite side of the couch. The tiny old man our Mind Dragon-Slayer had taken quite a silent interest in sat motionlessly on the remaining small table in the center of the room. Alex sat in Lucy's desk chair, watching the interesting group of mages. Inwardly, he chuckled, searching their memories and figuring out why Lucy had taken a liking to them his own team so easily.

_We're like another Fairy Tail. Loud, violent, insane…And she fits right in! _He barely bit down a true laugh as he looked around at their calculating faces.

"And Erza is still depressed about Jellal?"

I nodded at Cana. "She had finally gotten to see him, well Mystogan, the Prince, after believing that he had been completely consumed by darkness and his soul would never be the same again, not to mention that Earthland's Jellal had tried to kill her while Edolas' version would do anything to keep her safe." They all nodded in understanding of Erza's undying love for Jellal.

"And Gray? Juvia? Really?"

I chuckled at the disbelief in Gajeel's voice. "Yes, his especially. After seeing her Edolas counterpart being so cold hearted to him, he realized just how cruel he had been and had never been open-minded towards her, despite admitting to himself that he really did love her compliments. He's so obsessed with her now because he's finally seeing her as she really is, not just some crazy stalker chic that he doesn't want to anger her by looking at any other girl, or thinking about one for that matter."

"Well that's just dumb," Mira hissed, despite the fact that the matchmaker inside of her was dying to set all of Fairy Tail up with one another. "I can understand- _almost_ understand," she quickly corrected, seeing more than half of the room shoot her a glare. "The others' reasoning is sort of understandable, but still…"

"Yeah, I mean, that's just a minor obsession. It's not like she's planning on leaving him alone anytime soon," Gajeel added.

Cana nearly growled from her spot. "Stupid mother fu-"

"Cana!" Lisanna called, covering her ears to protect their innocence. After a moment of silence, she lowered her hands. "But you're right. He's just being stupid. They're all being stupid, but his is meaningless." She slouched over a bit, voice softening. "From what everyone has told me, Lucy had never let her past get in her way, nor her current life. She tried to sacrifice herself, knowing she could die while doing so, nearly got beat to death while being capture," Gajeel flinched, earning him a few reassuring side glances. They were family. He had made amends. "But had smiled through all of it because she knew that Fairy Tail had her back. She has officially cut nearly all ties with her love life, making it basically nonexistent," Alex was _definitely_ going to look through _that_ section of Lucy's memories when he returned, "just to make sure that she can go on jobs with her friends and take care of Natsu and the others. I have to say, I've been here since I was a kid, and I don't know if I would have been able to smile through off of that, sacrifice so much. Not only that, but to later feel like it's all been ripped out from underneath you in a matter of weeks… And she had finally admitted that she loved him…" Yes, Mira had told Lisanna about Lucy's confession towards Natsu, and Lisanna had never wanted to smack her childhood friend so hard. She had taken a job without him just to avoid him for a day and make him see what he was missing with Lucy. That had backfired a bit though, considering that he had just spent the next day giving her the silent treatment while nearly stalking her. _Not a fun day…_ She remembered, shuddering.

Alex sighed. He had come here to help, but it seems that I had only made them angrier. _If Lucy finds out I was here and did this, she'll kill me!_ "Look everyone, I probably shouldn't be here, but I figured that you all would want to hear at least some sort of update on her. And I have a slightly selfish thought I would like to share with you all." Now they all looked at him, thoroughly curious. "I may have her with me for now, and things may seem down for you guys, and from what I've understood, it could stay like this for a while." Laxus and Gajeel began to growl, but Alex ignored them. Lucas' annoyed growl was far scarier than these whimpers. "But, I know that things will get better for everyone. As much as I want to keep her with me," the growls became louder, "she will come back to you at one point or another." _Silence_, Alex smirked, relieved that even their minds had officially turned off in surprise. "She misses you all far too much to stay away forever. Whether it's for a single visit or coming back for good, she will be back, and most likely for the latter."

"But you've told us how much fun she's been having with you guys…" Laxus muttered, forehead creased in anger and confusion. Alex made sure to stay away from his and Gajeel's minds after their fluent string of vulgar words that had appeared when he told them that originally.

Shrugging and grunting, he sat back in the chair. Alex was surprised at how much furniture Lucy had left here, although he was planning on taking some back with me. "Yeah, she is, but we're something new, something to reassure her that she doesn't have to live with a broken heart, and considering how close she and Lucas have gotten, well, let's just say I doubt she'll be feeling bad for long." Mira's eyes sparkled, but Alex quickly blocked out her thoughts as well. _I would rather listen to Laxus and Gajeel's!_ "She wants to be back, but she doesn't want to become a problem, and I've tried to sort of convince her that she'll never be a burden and that she has to depend on you guys to never hurt her as well as herself. I thought I got thought I got through to her a bit during training the other we-"

"Y-You're training Lucy?" Mira nearly fainted right then and there. Alex shuffled edgily as the room became ominously tense.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek while the others exchanged worried glances until all sights set on Makarov. He stood slowly, using his (fairy useless and unused) cane to get fully up. The Master shook his head for a moment, keeping keen eyes on the floor with bangs covering them from sight. "You know," his voice was soft, reminiscent. "Lucy hated the idea of training. The sweat and the long hours bothered her so much, but she always somehow managed to keep up with the others." He laughed once with little true humor. "Natsu always asked about that, always thought it was funny how fit she really was without training…either way, he always tried to get her to train with him and the others. Every one of them did, but she always denied…" Ever so slowly, he raised his head, eyes hard but obviously holding back tears. The whole room shifted, uncomfortable and depressed. "I know to you training is a common thing, something that means nothing, but to us, it shows that she's trusting you, opening up to you and showing you enough weakness that she will allow you to reteach and guide her, so I want you to know that if you misuse her trust, her vulnerability, the guild will end you, oblivious Salamander or not!"

He automatically flinched a bit; body sensing the violent and threatening atmosphere and preparing for an attack, but Alex pushed it down and stood as slowly as possible. The others watched me closely as he approached their master, swelling up their magical energy for an attack. He kept his eyes locked with Alex's as Alex neared, towering over him before dropping down to one knee, bowing his head in respect. "I will make sure to keep her safe. She's an amazing girl and I wouldn't dare mistreat her, nor would my team. Have faith us, Master Makarov, please."

Alex could feel the room relax at his honest confession. _These people are trustworthy and kind, in their own way, of course. But they deserve to know that she will be in good hands until she returns._

"Alex," Laxus asked, much more relaxed than a moment ago now that he felt that this man would do no harm to the small girl he still considered a guild-mate. "Before, what did you mean by 'a selfish thought'?"

Lisanna nodded, standing form the bed and stretching. "Yeah, all you did was tell us that she'll be back and that she'll be leaving you. That would make us, and in turn, not you, happy, so how does that count as selfish?"

A sudden smirk crossed the Slayer's face as he stood with the others, backing away to the door. "Here's the thing… She's gonna leave soon, and I _really_ like her being here, so despite _knowing_ that she's gonna come back to Fairy Tail and Natsu and all, I'm still planning on trying to keep her as, well- Mine."

"You pervert!" Gajeel and Laxus yelled in unison, making Alex's hair stand on its end. Laughing as he ran out the door, and ignoring the two Dragon-Slayers that were hot on his tail, Alex couldn't help but realize why Lucy liked it here so much. _They're smart, supportive, fun…They're a family…_

* * *

**_Hey this one is a little bit longer than usual, but because of OhtaSuzuke and leoslady4ever, I was able to fine the inspiration to write/upload earlier than planned. I hope this helps you guys start understanding some of the OCs! Note, to thsoe who haven't been hearing (reading) me lately: this is SLOW AND EVENTUAL NALU, but it's coming up sooner. Understand this though, I am 100% NaLu, so if you doubt me at any reason during the story (which you probably will) just remember that this will end up as NaLu!_**

**_As always, I love to hear what you all have to say. Those who have PMed and reviewed me have given me a lot of inspirtation. I've tried to answer most of your question within the story, but if you have anything specific you want to ask me, please PM me just so I can make sure to get back to you!_**

**_~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa._**


	9. Chapter 9

"But Lucy~" Alex whined as the blond struggled to get out of his arms. "Didn't you miss me at all?"

Lucy shot her new teammates a look of desperation, but Lucas was finishing making breakfast, Maybell had already fallen back asleep on the couch, and Cory just continued to watch with an amused expression showing from beneath his extreme bedhead. "No!" Lucy barely kept herself from growling. "You were only gone for, like, a month! And you sent me _letters_! How could I miss you if you don't leave me alone?" Lucy flailed around, still attempting to get away from him, but the Slayer's arms were just too tight.

Alex continued to whine, hugging her even closer and rubbing his face into her shoulder until he heard a loud throat clearing from the kitchen. "Let her down, Alex." Alex nearly argued with Lucas, the self-proclaimed team captain, but Lucas added, "Breakfast is ready, anyways."

In a split second, Alex threw Lucy on to the couch, landing her directly on top of Maybell, who shot up with a snarl, baring deadly teeth at Lucy who raised her hands in innocence, pointing to the true culprit. Maybell narrowed her teeth at Alex who shivered violently from the kitchen table where the mini-feast was placed. "Is she still staring at me?" He whispered loudly to the other two boys who looked over to Maybell and Lucy.

"Lucy joined her," Lucas chuckled, putting his hand up to keep his smile from being seen.

"Someone's in trouble~" Cory chimed in, his voice changing from dark and mature to utterly childish and Lucy couldn't help her giggle. This was the first time she had ever heard him sound so little.

Maybell shot her a soft glare, to which Lucy pointed to the kitchen and quickly said, "Food's ready!" Maybell's eyes went wide and, with a snarl, she shoved Alex from his seat and took over, slamming his plate onto his lap and making her own. Lucy giggled again, but the four Dragon-Slayers were too engrossed in their meal to notice, so Lucy sat back, sinking into the couch to wait until the others were done. She had learned within her first week here that the food obsession had not been limited to the spoiled Dragon-Slayers of Fairy Tail. One of the first times she had breakfast with them, Cory had nearly bitten her hand off when she went for the last cinnamon roll, and not too long after that, Lucas had snarled at her for accidently picking up his nearly finished plate too soon.

Now granted, both of them had quickly apologized after they had eaten, but Lucy had taken the hint and decided to stay out of the way until they were done, knowing that Lucas would now make sure to save her enough food to eat afterwards.

Now she watched from a distance, finding the flying food fairly amusing. It never failed to amaze her how much each of these beasts could eat and still stay so fit, but after her month with Alex and another with Maybell, she was beginning to understand. The training had been intense and unyielding, despite even her best of efforts to distract them so she could have even a moment's break. But she had to admit that, thanks to Alex, her magical stamina had increased and she could now call out two Zodiac Spirits for a few minutes before having to close their gates and with Maybell's help, she could now hit a target dead center from over 80 yards away, shattering it without breaking a sweat. Her Fleuve d'étoiles was also beginning to respond her needs much quicker, something she had been able to test when Alex first came back three days ago.

Having been out in the field alone, practicing right before dinner as the Venom Dragon-Slayer had commanded, she was finally beginning to speed up her movements when a sudden twig snap alerted her of someone else's presence. Before she could even register that it could be one of her teammates, she had shrieked and spun, launching her whip out and catching the Mind Dragon-Slayer off guard and lashing his across the face, a fact she felt terrible for until she realized that he had been sneaking up on her in the first place and the guilt was quickly replaced by anger.

The blond was finally pulled from her thoughts as she heard the sink's water begin to run. It had sort of become _her_ signal for breakfast. Lucy sat at the table as Lucas placed a plate in front of her before sitting down at the table across from her. Maybell continued to clean to dishes, Cory disappeared, and Alex went to shower and get dressed for the day. "So," Lucy began after a few moments of silence, making Lucas look at her. "It's been a month since I've started training with Maybell. Am I changing to someone else again-"

"Oh am I not good enough for you?" Maybell hissed from the counter, her brown hair and loose plaid shirt swinging around her at the sudden swirl of magical energy. Unlike at Fairy Tail, dark auras didn't come naturally to those in anger here, but more like magical swells which caused an even more terrified reaction from the Celestial Mage. She had never really gotten into the guild fights and didn't plan on getting into one with her new team…at least not just yet. Alex's constant whining about her not loving him was beginning to change that. _Maybe it's time to bring back the Lucy Kick…_

"No, no! Not at all, Maybell! I was just saying how there's sort of been a pattern as of lately, you know, every month I switch teachers and all…hehehe…" Lucy trailed off in a nervous laugh, attempting to play off her extreme fear as she saw Maybell's anger die down. Off to the side, she noticed Lucas' smirk, but decided to let it go…this time.

"Well, in that case, you should probably start training with Cory." When Lucy shot her a questioning glance, she sighed. "Alex's and my techniques aren't going to be any help if you can't keep up with your enemy. Cory's quick and has good cardio, so he will be able to help you the best."

"Well that sounds like a good ide-"

"Of course, from what I've seen in your memories," Alex cooed from the doorway of the main tree-house, shirtless with only cargo shorts on, showing off the smooth abs her usually kept concealed beneath a shirt. Lucy felt a slight blush rise on her cheeks and hoped to holy hell that he wasn't reading her thoughts at that exact moment. "You're pretty used to running away, aren't you?"

Blush turned into angry fluster as Lucy sputtered from her spot at the table, ignoring Lucas' full out laughter. "I didn't run form the enemy! I- I ran from the team! Yeah, I ran from them! They destroy everything!" She nodded once, agreeing with her own reasoning while crossing her arms over her luscious chest. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to train with Cory!"

Lucy stood and strutted out the door, desperate to get the embarrassed and annoyed blush off of her face, but as she neared the ladder that would lead her to the open field, she heard Alex call out to her with, "Oh, and Lucy! Don't think I didn't hear you…And thank you. I, in fact, _do_ work very hard on my _wonderful_ abs."

Of course, just because she left Fairy Tail, doesn't mean that Fairy Tail had left her. A dark aura began to swell and no one could help but shiver in fear as they heard the outraged call of, "_Alex!_"

* * *

"Lisa-chama~" Natsu cooed rather loudly as he entered the guild, coming back from yet another successful mission and running straight to his girlfriend of four months who giggled at the nickname he had given her. He hugged her with one arm as he sat at the bar, ignoring the annoyed growl of Mira who slammed a plate down for him with a little bit more force than necessary.

"How was your mission, Natsu-kun?" Lisanna asked, shivering slightly as guilt crawled up her spine. _Why am I still with him? Lucy loves him and he loves Lucy, whether he knows it or not…I'm just delaying him from finding out the inevitable, from finding out that Lucy's gone…What will he do?_

While stuck in her thoughts, Lisanna failed to listen to Natsu's in-depth analysis of him beating up a troll a few towns over, but what finally drew her out was when he added, "And the weirdest thing happened: I smelt Lucy there!" Nearly half the guild froze, tears pricking a few members' eyes. Evergreen, despite her past with Lucy, quickly wiped tears away, snuggling into Elfman who bit his lip to keep in sobs that had taken nearly five days to stop once he had originally heard, and for Evergreen, it had taken Laxus and Mirajane, not to mention Freed's runes to keep her from turning Natsu into a pile of crushed stone. Of course, Freed had to be informed as to why he was keeping the angry Mage quiet and locked up, and had taken it the easiest, surprising everyone when he immediately went to Mira and asked how she was holding up. The two had been finding more and more comfort in one-another as of lately, much to the rest of the guild's joy. It was about time that the match-maker found a match of her own.

Alzack and Bisca had taken in just as hard as Elfman, not returning to the guild for a few days, but when they did, it was with red-stained eyes. It took a few days and encouraging words from the others who knew to get them to take another mission and get back into the usual swing.

One of the worst so fat though had to be Juvia, who, when she exclaimed how ecstatic she was that her 'love-rival' had not been hanging around Gray as much, had barely dodged a lightning strike from Laxus when Gajeel pulled her out of the way and to the back corner of Fairy Tail where he explained to his former teammate the situation. Everything had been silent around those who knew as she stood, tears swimming in her eyes, and walked over to Gray. Some were afraid that she may blab to Gray and the others out of grief and love or whatever, but no one expected what actually happened. Juvia tapped Gray on the shoulder, distracting him from his argument with Natsu and _slapped him_ directly across the face, forcing the whole guild into silence. With that, she began to sob and rushed out of the guild, not to be seen by anyone except Mira, Lisanna, Cana, and Gajeel for a solid week, and even when she went back into the guild, she avoided anyone who didn't know, continuously muttering about how stupid Gray was and how she would smack him again if he didn't find out soon.

But it was still the original knowing ones who were taking it the hardest. Cana refused to speak to Natsu or his team, Gajeel was having trouble talking to Levy, since she had still yet to notice the disappearance of her _supposed_ best friend, Mirajane refused to allow a smile to truly reach her eyes, Laxus occasionally allowed a lightning strike to stray and shock Natsu, and Makarov couldn't help the sharp tone that came out every time he addressed Team Natsu.

"Na- Natsu!" Cana choked on her sake for a moment. "Did you just saw that you _smelt_ Lucy there?"

Natsu nodded, scratching his chin a bit as he tried to remember. "Yeah, it was weird, really strong too, but I didn't see her anywhere. I was sort of in the middle of a mission so I guess I didn't really bother looking, but I'm glad that she's been taking jobs and everything, but I guess we could hang out when she gets back or something." He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment before turning back to his food, gorging himself without second thought to the sudden tense atmosphere of the guild.

"Natsu! I wanna go fishing! Come on~" Happy yelled, lifting Natsu up by his scarf and flying him out of the guild, despite his loud protests of wanting to hang out with his girlfriend.

As Natsu neared the doors, he saw Lisanna put her head down and her lips move softly. Even as he strained to hear it, he convinced himself that he must have heard wrong, as he thought she said, "Who said I wanted to be with you, anymore?"

I mean, that was just ludicrous… Right?

* * *

**Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, guys! Thing is that I do martial arts and in a small interschool competition, I got really hurt and had to stay in the hospital with no way to write for a week, and the this past school week had been midterms so...yeah...**

**But either way, thank you to everyone who PMed me or reviewed or even both! When I finally got hold of my phone after being allowed to leave the hospital, I saw all the messages from Fanfiction on my email and nearly fainted out of happiness! You guys inspired me to write this as soon as possible, so please continue! What you guys think really does mean the world to me!**

**And remember, this will always be NaLu, despite anyone else I ****_temporarily _****allow them to be paired up with... Oh and standard disclaimer applies... ****_someone_**** sent me a rather nasty message about forgetting to add that, so just keep that in mind for all chapters...**

**~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa**


	10. Chapter 10

_"Finally!"_ Lucy panted, desperately attempting to keep upright as she waited to hear her final time.

"…Ten minutes." Lucy would have jumped for joy had she had any feeling left in her legs, but then again, she also had to wait until Cory decided if he approved or not. She glanced over at him, ignoring the vigorous obstacle course behind her that had been the source of her pain for three days now, each day having added a new piece to the already painful 'playground'. Cory looked down at his notes, then back up at Lucy, then to the obstacle course, before looking back down at his notes. He repeated this cycle several times, trying Lucy's patience indefinitely before shrugging and stretching. "I guess you can take a small break for now."

"Yes!" Lucy collapsed happily on the soft grass, rolling onto her back and allowing the soft breeze of early October to cool her skin. "Cory~! Water~!" She whined, smirking a bit as Cory succumbed to her needs, leaning over into the cooler beside his chair and snagging out a water bottle, tossing it over to Lucy who barely sat up in time to greedily accept it, throwing her head back and guzzling down as much as she could in the process. As she consumed the drink, she subconsciously allowed some to drip down her chin, along her sweat-glazed neck, past her prominent collarbone and down in the crevice of her brea-

"Cory!" Lucas barked, snapping said mage from his dirty thoughts as he turned to his dark haired friend, smiling sheepishly. Lucas had his hands deep in his black dress pants, slouching over menacingly as he snarled at Cory who, despite the rather warm nature of the day, wore his usual black jacket and jeans, happy to be back in his rightful clothing again instead of in Lucas' which he had to because of the latest mission. "Keep thoughts clean!" Cory nodded quickly, shooting a slight glare at Alex who, positioned beside Lucas, had obviously given him away. Turning back to Lucy, he found himself rather surprised to see that she was staring past him, lips puckered and eyebrows drawn close together in a rather cute, confused expression. Her chocolate eyes, Cory noted, were locked tightly on Lucas.

Cory chuckled a bit, but Lucy paid him no heed and continued staring at the well-dressed man from across the field. "Liking what you see?" Cory was no idiot. Lucy was attractive, as well as, dare he say it, Lucas, who found that most of the women he came across would flirt heavily with him. Of course, since what had happened with his past love, Lucas never cared much for another relationship, but if Lucy was interested, Cory was pretty sure that the girl's determination would not be stopped again by a past love...

"Wha- What do you mean?" The blonde stuttered, wide, innocent eyes turning to Cory. Had he not been looking for it, said mage probably would have never noticed the light blush that had now being to crawl up Lucy's neck. The Nature Dragon-Slayer smirked, chewing on a piece of bark he snapped off of a near-by tree. Lucy grimaced at his, scrunching her nose in disgust. "I still don't understand how you do that."

Cory raised an eyebrow, holding up his bark. "What? Eat? It's a part of my element, dammit! And stop changing the conversation! We're talking about your fail of a love-life!" As though she had eaten some of her _own_ element, Lucy's energy was back in a flash as she launched to her feet, face beet-red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

"My love life is _not_ a fail and I was _not_ looking at him like that! I was merely _observing_!" The busty blonde crossed her arms across her chest and nodded, as though confirming her own argument.

Cory snorted and stood as well, although he seemed to be reverting back to his calm demeanor. "Oh please! You know you loved that kiss~"

Before Lucy could retort, Alex interrupted, jogging over from his position across the field, holding golden and silver items in his hand. "My keys!" Lucy exclaimed brightly, completely forgotten her anger at Cory as she ran to meet Alex halfway. "Am I allowed to start training with them again? I haven't called them out since I got here!"

Alex smiled as Lucy pouted, but despite her sour attitude, she was aware enough to notice that there was something off about that smile of his. It didn't hold his usual mischief, but something much heavier, something that she was far more familiar with: sadness. Before she should even ask, Alex shook his head and nodded to her keys. "Not training, but I need to speak with Leo. I heard a bit of the conversation last night while passing by our compound and I need to clear something with him." He couldn't help but be amused at the fact that Lucy's face immediately flushed in guilt. "Don't worry, I won't tell the others, but I really do need to talk to him."

Admittedly, Lucy was slightly reluctant to call out Loke, only to have him leave her side immediately. Yes, she was being selfish, but it was rare that she could speak to any of her spirits since her team kept her keys locked away until they decided it was time to start training with them as well. For Mavis' sake, she wasn't even allowed to call out _Plue!_ But, the look in Alex's eyes, the well-hidden worry and sadness forced Lucy to think twice. Sighing, she pulled Loke's key off of her ring and raised it, slashing it downwards as she called, "Open, Gate of the Lion, Loke!"

There was a bright flash, forcing Lucy and Alex to flinch for a moment before the young Stellar Spirit appeared, throwing his arms around Lucy's body tightly, exclaiming how much he missed her and such before Lucy pushed him away, rolling her eyes and sighing, "The jig's up, Loke. Alex heard us talking last night…"

At the sound of Alex's name, Loke whipped around to face the Mind Dragon-Slayer, his face suddenly serious. "Loke," Alex greeted quietly. Loke bowed his head once in recognition before turning back to his master in curiosity.

"Loke," Lucy whispered, finding her arms wrapping back around him. She had found herself doing this as well the night before. He was her last connection to Fairy Tail it seemed and it was comforting having him around, though she would never tell him that. Every time she brought up their old guild, Loke's anger would swell and he would quickly excuse himself and close his own gate, leaving Lucy clueless, alone and confused. "Alex wants to speak with you privately, okay?"

Loke nodded, smiling down at her reassuringly. "I know you'll miss me princess-" she scoffed and quickly pushed him in Alex's direction, but he ignored it. "But I'll be back soon~!" Alex and Loke both laughed at Lucy's mutterings of annoyance as she turned back to Cory, but the humor was soon gone as Alex signaled the Stellar Spirit to follow him.

The climb up the tree and walk across the bridge to Alex's personal compound was silent and tense, but there was a clear sense of camaraderie between the two that anyone could see. As they entered the large room, Alex shut the door behind him, motioning for Loke to join him at the center table. The orange-haired man sat at the chair across from him, but refused to start the conversation, so Alex was forced to.

"Thank you, by the way." Loke raised an eyebrow at the man in front of him. "For giving me permission to show the others her memories."

Loke scowled down at his hands. "It wasn't right of me to do so. Those were her most precious and most terrifying moments. You should have asked her."

"No," Alex whispered. "You know that would have only hurt her pride and she would have said no. It would have just brought forth all the horrible things again since the others would be forced to ask her about her past instead of see it-"

"Is this all you've called me in here for?" Loke interrupted, not wanting to hear much more. His guilt level was through the roof and the fact that he hasn't fulfilled his _wishes_ with Fairy Tail yet was making him even edgier than usual.

Alex shook his head, leaning forwards to gain Loke's attention from his hands. "I have to warn you about something, something concerning Lucas and Lucy." The Lion's head snapped up, his eyes showing a fierce sense of protectiveness. Alex could somewhat understand this, as he had known what it felt like, protecting those you cared about, but this was more than just friendship, this was a lion being loyal to his master, and something told Alex that it was far stronger than anything he knew. "I can't tell you much, not without Lucas' permission, but I don't want him knowing that I've been peaking around his mind in the first place. You see," Alex bit his tongue, trying to find a way to word this so it wouldn't cross any lines of privacy or sound _too_ bad. "Lucy looks _extraordinarily _similar to an old flame of Lucas'." Loke shackles began to rise and he couldn't help but think, _not again!_ "Her name was Alice White. And he truly…he truly loved her, but she was only kind because she felt pity for him, so when he…when he proposed Alice denied him and ran away with a man she had been seeing all along…"

Loke nodded in understanding. "What happened to her?"

Alex bit his lip. "I can't tell you that. It would breach the agreement I've made with Lucas over the past years, but I can warn you about one thing: when they are alone, keep an ear out from the Spirit Plane. Try not to let things get too far with them…I'm trying to make him realize that she's not Alice, but-"

"Yeah, he's stubborn. I can see that." Loke was not in the mood for this. He wanted to make sure Lucy was happy. He was finally able to see her without having to have shushed or nonexistent conversations and he wanted to spend that time with her. "Can I go back to Lucy now?"

Alex sighed and nodded, but as Loke reached for the door, he called out to him once more, saying, "He doesn't know!" Loke froze. "H-he doesn't know yet," Alex sighed. He just wanted to help, but it seemed that his abilities were only causing more drama. "If you lash out now, it won't have any significance. He'll just think you were trying to start a brawl." Loke nodded, muttering something along the lines of thanks before leaving, hurrying to go see Lucy.

Loke found himself quickly sitting down next to Cory, who was watching intently as Lucy left from one high peg to the next, trying to avoid the water trap he had set up below. She nearly slipped on one, but grasped onto the rounded top with sweaty hands and pulled herself back up, shaking slightly before leaping off to the final platform and jogging tiredly over to Cory and Loke, smiling widely as she saw her old friend. "Better than last time, Lucy! You've already improved by ten seconds-"

"That's _it?_" Lucy huffed, plopping down on the grass in front of Loke, who chuckled quietly while playing with her golden locks. They had begun to get longer… "Ugh~! I'm gonna be slow for _life!_" Loke's master whined while her trainer just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," he dismissed, simply waving her off as he sat back in his chair. "You said that you'd be magically inadequate and inaccurate for life too while training with Alex and Maybell, so just shut it."

Lucy's eyes flashed in anger, but it seemed that her energy was far too weak for her to present any argument, so she stuck to mumbling unintelligently for several minutes until her faithful friend began to shift next to her. "You leavin', Loke?"

"Yeah, I better get back and tell the others how you're doing before they kill me…"

Lucy looked up at him sadly before muttering a low, "Tell them I'm sorry…"

His deep chuckle made Lucy's head snap up, only to see the rather amused face of the leader of the Zodiacs. "Lucy~ we're your spirits _and_ your friends! We're willing to do whatever it is that you feel will help you in your journey." Loke stood and stretched for a moment before leaning down to plant a small kiss on his princess' forehead. When he pulled back, he couldn't help but noticed just how utterly _pink_ her face had suddenly become. "I will see you soon, princess." And with that, he was gone.

There was silence for a moment before Cory and Alex began to pull at Lucy's cheeks, cooing at her for being so cute. "I swear, if you two weren't such like brother and sister, I'd believe you were dating!"

"No! No~" Cory whined, yanking her left cheek a bit harder and ignoring Lucy's defensive slaps. "Our little Lucy's not allowed to have a boyfriend! She's too _cute_ and _innocent!_"

A sudden slamming noise behind them made the three jump, and Lucy felt relieved as her cheeks were freed, but only for a moment before a red-hot blush shot up her face when she felt two hands clasp over her breasts. "If Lucy's got a boyfriend," Maybell smirked, tightening her grip on Lucy's bosom. "It's because of these big babies! I mean seriously, how do you ever run with stuff this big on your chest?"

Cory scoffed beside her. "She doesn't! She's _slow as hell!_"

"Hey! I am not!" As the team began to argue and Lucy freed her breasts of Maybell's hands, they all couldn't help but notice their missing teammate was watching from the balcony edge of their main compound, seeming torn between glaring at them and joining them. When his eyes met Lucy's he quickly chose the former and stormed inside, leaving the blonde to huff in frustration. "What the hell? Why won't he talk to me?"

The others laughed lightly, but there was something behind that laughter, a hidden pain. It seemed to be a common emotion in this group. "He's had a troubled past," Cory muttered softly.

"Yeah," Maybell added, rolling her eyes. "With _women_."

And as the others began to freely joke in the setting sun, Lucy couldn't help but wonder what in the name of Fairy Tail they had meant by _that_.

* * *

**First of all...PLEASE DON'T KILL ME FOR THE LATE UPDATE! I've just been a bit stuck on what to write next since there are certain scenes that I'm ****_dying_**** to publish because I've already written them, but I've already done so many time-skips and I'm trying to limit those back down so I can get into the actual drama, but...yeah...**

**So~ Please Review! I usually hate asking, but it renews my confidence that I'm actually writing a good story and not something that is being utterly overlooked...**

**Please remember, there will be other romances, but this is ultimately a NaLu story, considering I'm NaLu all the way!**

**~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa**


	11. Chapter 11

This was bad, so _very_ bad, Mira decided, sweating profusely at the heated glare the exceed across from her was giving. Charlie's foot began to tap and the barmaid quickly began looking for escapes. Cana was drunk off her rocker (nothing new there), Laxus was in too bad of a mood to handle this after his last failure of tracking Lucy's scent, which had ended with him stalking a well-dressed, raven-haired man for several hours before the man caught him and began hissing profanities at him. Laxus had quickly deemed that Lucy would never stay with a man so violent and rude, not to mention with such strange, mismatched eyes, ones that had struck Laxus in his core, forcing a shiver up his spine as he had run away. _But then again, she had been at Fairy Tail for quite a while, and they were exactly polite, or quiet, or normal..._ Mira shook herself from her thoughts and went back to searching for help.

Gajeel was busy avoiding Levy as though she was the plague, still fuming and torn about the fact that she had replaced _bunny-girl _so quickly and, ultimately, seemed to forget about her completely. Wendy was afraid of Freed, Evergreen, and Bixlow, and the others were either on missions or refusing to remember any bad news. _Well…shit!_

"Well?" Charlie sneered, hands on hips as she awaited Mirajane's long-awaited answer. She and Wendy had been sitting there for about ten minutes now, waiting for Mira's answer on where Lucy was. Charlie had a rather unsettling image of Lucy and a strange man together and, after speaking to Wendy about it, she had decided to speak to Lucy about it, make sure she was aware, but no one seemed to be answering them on where Fairy Tail's Celestial Mage was.

Wendy's head tilted innocently to the side, watching the usually calm and collected model sweat and shake. As Mira shifted, Wendy found the uncomfortable churning in her stomach from this morning become rather unsettling. With a hardened gaze, Wendy squared her shoulders and asked, "Mirajane, where is Lucy?"

Several others who were rather close to the two stilled, holding back sobs at the thought of their favorite blonde. She had been gone for quite a while now, nearly six months, and those who had been slower at noticing were deeply angered with themselves, but not as angry as they were to the girl's supposed 'best friend' and his team. Erza, Gray, Happy, and Natsu were the center of nearly everyone's bad thoughts as of lately (though Levy wasn't far off from them). It got so bad with some of the mages that people had started brawling more and more often in order to take their anger out on the idiots, even bringing Erza in to get a shot or two out. But despite all that, every mage stuck true to their word and waited for each person to figure it out on their own, only being there to console the person afterwards.

But Wendy...well, everyone had honestly been _dreading_ this day. She was just _so young!_ Wendy and Lucy had been rather close, and it was widely known that Wendy looked up to Lucy as an older sister as well as a mentor. The youngest Dragon-Slayer had said on many occasions that as much as she wanted to be as powerful as Gajeel and Natsu, she would do anything to be as smart, tactful, and beautiful as Lucy. So no one was really looking forward to the day when Wendy realized Lucy was gone. In fact, Nab had gone as far as giving the job he had FINALLY picked to Wendy just to keep her out of the guild for a while Cana escorted her, stopping at every possible detour so a three day mission ended up taking three weeks. People around the guild distracted her to the best of their ability, but ever since Romeo found out, their main form of distraction found himself unable to be with the Wind Dragon-Slayer for more than a few moments without being mad. The same went for him and 'Natsu-nii'.

But now, Wendy was staring down Mira with a look that could have _easily_ rivaled the fear her own Satan Soul caused and Mira figured she had to finally tell her...Wendy was going to completely die...

"Come with me, Wendy," the barmaid sighed deeply, catching Freed's eye as she went in the back. Freed looked to Wendy and raised an eyebrow and Mira nodded, understand what he was asking: 'She finally noticed?' Freed nodded in understanding and sat down next to Evergreen, but his eyes never left Mira's blushing face.

Wendy passed Mira and went into the back kitchen, awaiting Erza's arrival. When Fairy Tail's mother figure finally broke her starring contest with her unofficial boyfriend, she closed the door behind her and began to pace, not exactly sure as to how she was going to break this to the small blue-haired girl. Charlie, who had silently followed, now sat on the metal countertop next to Wendy, rather curious as to what the hell was going on. "Girls," Mira whispered, gaining her attention immediately. Her usual smiling face was now coated with a strained expression, as though she was holding back tears. Now Wendy _knew_ that something was wrong, very, _very_ wrong. "I want you to promise me something..."

"What do you need, Mira-San? Is Lucy-San okay?"

Silence lingered for a moment before Mira whimpered a small, "I hope so..." she raised tear stained eyes to look at the two who had never seen the woman look so worn before. "Look, promise me that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, okay? There are others who know, but those who don't are supposed to learn this on their own, so no telling, okay? Just promise me that."

Charlie and Wendy exchanged suspicious glances before nodding.

"Good, now...oh _Mavis_! How do I say this...?" Mira's pacing doubled in speed for a few minutes before she finally stopped and grasped Wendy's hands in her own. "Well, Wendy, for a while now, Natsu and Lucy have been...Uhm- growing apart. Lucy was in love with Natsu and was willing to wait until he realized that, despite how _dense_ he is." she paused, checking to make sure Wendy understood. With a nod from the small girl, the Take-Over Mage continued. "When my sister returned, Lucy was so happy and the two became good friends, but Lucy had started noticing that others were slowly ignoring her, like Levy and her very own team, and instead focused on Lisanna. Lucy was okay with it though, because everyone was still happy, and that was all she wanted. But on their last mission together, Lisanna messed up and Lucy covered for her so the others couldn't blame her. They got mad at Lucy and-" Mira steadied her shaking voice and hands by clenching Wendy's tighter. Single tear droplet work their way down Mira's cheeks, shocking the bluenette in front of her, but Wendy couldn't help her as Mira's grip on her wrists was far too tight. "Lucy-" she sobbed, biting her lip to keep her emotions under control before continuing. "Lucy- she couldn't keep it up. She had decided to leave, and when she came, Natsu and Lisanna were dating! And Erza suggested that she _worked alone! Alone!_ I don't _understand_ how-" Mira's cries choked her off as she sank to her knees. Wendy was frozen in place.

_Gone? Lucy wouldn't leave... She loves Fairy Tail. But, is she was that sad, then it- it-_ Realization clicked in the ever-kind Wendy's mind and she felt an uncontrollable snarl building up her throat. "Then it's all Natsu's fault." Mira's head snapped up in surprise, but before she could hold Wendy back, the small girl was already storming out into the guild, Charlie trotting angrily behind her.

_That stupid He-cat! How could he forget his own friend so quickly?_ The exceed felt her blood boil as she scanned the guild along with Wendy for the famous Salamander and his blue-furred partner. _She did nothing but care for them! She fed them, loved them, and nursed those idiots back to health when they were sick! She put up with them and protected them-_

"Natsu!" Wendy's shrill yell rang through the guild, silencing it the second her eyes landed on said mage who had his arm around his fidgeting girlfriend. _I love you, Lisanna, but that should be Lucy..._

Natsu, rather startled by Wendy's yell, stood and began walking to her, seemingly not noticing how the air swirled dangerously at the small girl's feet or how she continuously clenched and unclenched her teeth in venomous anger. "Hey Wendy, what's up-" Before he could even finish, a deadly blade of wind sliced his cheek, drawing small drops of blood from the superficial wound. _"Wendy!"_ he gasped in surprise, touching his cheek. The guild's tension rose to palpable levels.

"You!" Wendy seethed, stalking forwards to Natsu as if he was her prey. Natsu quickly stood, now very aware of her stance. "You _moron_!" She launched another blade, catching Natsu slightly off guard again. He stumbled backwards, barely catching himself from falling. "You imbecile! Jerk! Idiot! _Baka_!"

"W-Wendy! Calm down! _What did I do_?" That was the _wrong_ thing to say. Wendy froze for a moment before baring her teeth at Natsu.

Venom dripped from every insult she began throwing at him and Levy _swore_ to herself to _never_ lend that girl a book with possibly another dirty word in it as long as she lived. At the bar, Happy sat in pure shock. Wendy, the Wind Dragon-Slayer Natsu considered his little sister, was attacking Natsu as though she were actually trying to hurt him which, from the look on her face, probably wasn't too far off. The blue exceed watched in horror as Wendy's attacks slowly became closer and closer to their mark, beginning to clip the edges of Natsu's jacket and pants.

"Na-" Happy went to go save his best friend when a fury fist suddenly slammed into his face. It didn't hurt much, but the shock had sent him flat on his butt, making him eye level with a familiar pair of white legs and the edge of a pink dress. His eyes slowly trailed up to see a trembling Charlie. Her eyes were tightly shut, tears pricking at the corners as she gritted her teeth in order to keep from spewing out words than even Cana had enough drunk-dignity to stay away from. "Charlie? What's wrong?" His eyes were drawn to her tiny fists which were clenching and unclenching roughly. "Do you want a fish?"

Natsu and Happy _really_ were the same with words.

Charlie had never hit someone with fairly malicious intent until now. She lunged at Happy, tackling his backwards. She sat there, pinning him down while crying her eyes out, unsure how to express her extreme disappointment towards the cat that Lucy had spent so long taking care of. Whenever he was hungry or unhappy, she was there. Whenever he was sick, Lucy was there to nurse him back to health. Lucy took every insult, every guilt trip, and every plead he had ever given her with an open heart. She had helped him tie every ribbon of every fish he had ever offered her.

She had become a mother to him.

And the moment Lisanna came back, he left her without a second thought.

Rage and disappointment seared through her body, but before she could act on it, muscular brown arms were holding her back. "Charlie," Patherlily attempted to soothe. "He doesn't know. It won't matter if he doesn't know." He repeated it several times before Charlie stopped struggling. He released his hold on her for only a second before she turned and, with Gajeel's exceed leading her, ran off. Happy sat there, rather stumped and confused, not to mention ridiculously hurt as to what was going on. Were Lily and Charlie together now? What was he talking about when Lily said that Happy didn't know? Would Natsu know? Or the team? _Probably..._ the remembrance of Natsu brought Happy's eyes back to the center of the guild, just in time to see Wendy's wind transform. Instead of being slashes of nearly invisible air, they were now mini tornadoes, flicking out on her command, much like a whip would do.

_A whip...? Has Lucy been teaching Wendy?_ Happy scanned he guild for the blond, but when he saw no such girl, he merely shrugged. _Must be on a mission again. She's probably really strong since she went solo and all..._

Back in the center of the guild, Natsu was having trouble holding his own against his little sister. He had no desire to hurt her, but as she began to flick her spinning whips at him, the anger and worry in his stomach burned harder than ever before. The fact that he was being attacked with no way to attack back angered him, but something about the moves she used made him _very_ worried. It was as if she was honesty trying her hardest to hurt him.

"Wendy! What did I do?" He begged, rolling quickly along the ground and shooting back up to his feet to dodge several more wind attacks. He could nearly feel the ripples in the air the whips left when the cracked close to his skin.

Wendy gave a wordless screech and rushed forward to Natsu, launching four streams of air at once to capture his arms and legs, but Natsu launched a small fire blast along the ground, momentarily scaring the young slayer from her path of revenge. Natsu used the distraction to his advantage, jumping high into the air and launching himself towards Wendy, hoping to pin and disarm her, but Wendy spotted him at the last moment and spin to get away. Natsu, fairly well versed in the game of tackle-and-pin-the-unwilling-mage from his afternoons spent annoying Lucy, changed his course mid-air and grasped Wendy's wrists, effectively pinning her down. "Wendy!" Natsu ignored how she snarled from below him. "Please! What did I do? I can't fix it if you don't tell me?"

That changed everything. Wendy's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. "Are you _kidding me_? _Everyone else in the guild noticed without any help! Why should I help you, you sorry jerk?"_

Natsu glanced around, noticing how many of Fairy Tail's mages either refused to look at him or scowled. "Wha-what do you mean? I haven't done anything wrong-"

"You really just replaced her, didn't you?"

Natsu was now officially confused and it showed pretty clearly on his face. "Replaced who?"

That was it.

Wendy's eyes becoming mercilessly narrowed and she blinked her tears away as she sucked in a large breath. Natsu began to back away, recognizing the attack, but he was too late. "Wind Dragon's _Roar!"_

The infamous Salamander was unable to dodge the attack as it left Wendy's mouth, launching him not only backwards, but so far up into the air that his back slammed against the roof's support beams. He fell back down to the ground, Wendy's roar never leaving him as he was quickly thrown into the wall, suffocating slightly by the pressure being put on his chest, but in a sudden relief, the wind was gone. Natsu vaguely heard shouting, but his ears continued to ring relentlessly, keeping him from hearing the words spewing loudly from the lips of the guild's other first-generation Dragon-Slayers.

As Natsu continued to struggle with his hearing, Gajeel held Wendy up from beneath her arms, hoising her high in the air and scowling deeply. "You can't do this, Wendy!"

"Shut the hell up, Gajeel!" Wendy twisted and kicked violently, hoping to get down and attack some sense into Natsu, but the Iron Dragon-Slayer had a grip that reflected his title quite accurately. "You knew! You knew and you didn't tell me! We're supposed to be a _family_ here! When something happens to someone, everyone is supposed to know so we can help-"

"You know it won't make a difference," Gajeel interrupted, setting the suddenly still girl down on the ground. He kneeled sighed, "And we have to respect _her_ wishes." Everything was utterly silent for a moment before Wendy broke into Gajeel's arms, clutching his t-shirt and sobbing loudly, her shoulders shaking from the force of the cries wracking through her body. Without another word to the either heartbroken, broken, or curiously confused members of Fairy Tail, Gajeel picked up his 'little sister' and headed towards the doors.

When he neared the doorway, he picked up the slightly-rushed pitter-patter of another small bluenette's feet, the same pair he had been avoiding all day. He didn't stop, not did he look at her, but everyone in Fairy Tail knew his next words were for Levy. "Stay here, Levy. I'm not going to need you to be there tonight." Utterly crushed, Levy freezes in her place, watching her Dragon-Slayer walk out the door without her, without needing her. Without wanting her…

Levy, rather wobbly, walked back to the bar, beginning to notice how people turned a bit away from her, Natsu, and his team. What was going on? She checked around to see if people were acting the same way to Lisanna, but found that others were accepting her company without problem, welcoming her if anything. _Who am I missing?_ She looked around once more, noticing Romeo running out of the guild after the two Dragon-Slayers, Lisanna avoiding all contact with Natsu, and Gray and Erza trying to figure out what just happened. Happy sat a few feet over, head bowed down as though in heavy thought, while Mira was over by Freed, Bixlow, and Evergreen, all three of them working hard to console the shaking girl. Freed leaned forward and pulled Mira close to him, giving her small, almost unnoticable eskimo kisses that seem to be cheering her up little by little. Lisanna quickly joined them, sitting between Evergreen and Bixlow who both quickly wrapped their arms around her in comfort. Laxus was silently walking up the stairs, hurrying to his grandfather's office, the same room the guild master had yet to emerge from since the previous night.

Levy rested her head on the bar's counter, unable to shake the sudden feeling of unease. _What the hell is going on?_

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**_Hey guys, sorry this has taken so long, but I hope it made you all happy! Yes, we are getting close to the final realization, but not just yet! And I'm half way through my next chapter, so expect that one sooner rather than later! _**

**_Anyway, I just wanted to remind you all that I love hearing what you guys think through reviews and PMs! Thank you all for following and favoriting and sticking with me through this!_**

**_Oh and apply the usual disclaimer..._**

**_~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa_**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey Minna~! It's Mona here (finally!). It's taken me so long to get back because I just went in for a major leg repair surgery and everything bad that could have happened did, including me being allergic to some of the medication I needed, so I was forced to stay at the hospital for about three weeks now, and when I did get hoe, the pain pills I had to use were so ****_strong_**** that I couldn't stay awake for more than 30 minutes after taking them...It kind of sucked... **

**Either way, I just got the all clear for being able to sit at my computer yesterday and since then, in a few hours, I wrote this small chapter up. No worries, I will be updating faster and longer (tehehehehe that's what ****_he_**** said! XD) soon, but I felt so bad about not updating in nearly two months that I figured I'd get you guys something before I lost your guys' motivation and love! **

**Another note: this chapter begins after a dream that will be featured in a later chapter (whether it be Lucy's dream at that point or not is undecided) so don't be confused if you don't remember this experiance. The next update will be soona and concerning what's going on at the guild. Things are starting to heat up on both fronts and a hidden darkness is beginning to become more known. But who will stop it: Fairy Tail or its members' beloved Stellar-Spirit Mage?**

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Lucy snapped up into a sitting position, the cool sweat of her skin immediately cooling her blistering skin. Her eyes snapped to her wrists and arms, then down to her legs and waists, checking herself for burn marks or chains but when she found none, she flopped back down, right hand slamming over her chest to attempt to calm her pounding heart. _Just a dream… all just a dream…sort of…but the same one, again…_

"He left me there to burn in his own fire…" Lucy muttered, wincing at the sudden realization of the soreness in her leg's from Cory's training as she attempting to stretch them. From what she could see out the window of her small, personal tree-dome, it wasn't anywhere close to dawn yet. She pulled the curtains back even further, hoping to get a glimpse of a familiar star, one that would give her some form of comfort, but the sight of the sky only dampened her mood and eyes even further. The only constellation visible from her position between the trees was the one she had refused to look at since she left Fairy Tail: Draco the Dragon.

In a flat second, her heart began to pound once more, palms sweating as tears poured over. Lucy threw her curtains shut and reached quickly for her pillow, attempting to smother her cries with it so she didn't wake her team. She had desperately hopped that now that she was getting along much better with her team, beginning to connect and become a true part in everyone's lives, and them in hers, that she would stop feeling so much pain each time she thought of everything that had happened, but since she had left, each night had been this: a new nightmare where Natsu, Erza, Gray, or any other Fairy Tail member left her behind, scolded her for not being as great as Lisanna. There had even been a dream where Happy had abandoned her in a time of desperate need to get a fish from Lisanna, claiming that she was a far better mother than Lucy could ever be. That dream had crushed her nearly as bad as this recent one had, bringing up the idea of Lisanna and Natsu married, a child, growing old together… and despite all that, she still harbored no ill feelings towards Lisanna or Natsu.

Sure he was dense to her feelings, but he had done so much for her in the past that she had no right to be mad at him. _Besides, if he was truly my best friend as I've always stated, then I should be doing anything I can to get them together, as long as that makes him happy, right? _She nodded to herself, knowing that it was true, despite the overwhelming pain of the tears that ran from her dry eyes and the never-ending throbbing of her head. _And Lisanna has been nothing but kind to me from the beginning, and probably would have convinced me to stay if she had found out my plans…or at least attempted to…_

_It would have been more that what everyone else had done. Speaking of, I wonder how many have noticed I've left._ Without conscious thought of doing so, her eyes lifted from being smothered within the pillow to resting on her closet doors, the doors that his her suitcase from the others. Over the past few nights, she had honestly been contemplating visiting, seeing how many had noticed her disappearance, or at least the true nature of it, but she always backed down with the thought of facing him again. _If I see that smile, that grin…If I hear that laugh or feel that heat, will I be able to come back here? To Maybell? Cory? Alex? Even to…Lucas? Could I leave Natsu for Lucas?_

_Never._ Despite the unfairness of it all and the fact that Lucy had admitted her mild attraction to the man she barely spoke with, she could never leave Natsu for Lucas. Natsu held her whole heart while Lucas was just a wonderful sight. For Pete's sake! She had been here long over three months; nearly six months away from Fairy Tail, and Lucas had barely had more than ten conversations directly with her! He wrestled with the boys and Maybell every day, whining about how they got his nice suit permanently dirty after he had loaned it to Cory for the mission at the train station, where they had switched clothing so Cory could pretend to be a young gentleman and look less like a delinquent in his usual hoodie and jeans, he cooked, he cleaned and trained and fought! He even found time to go to their elusive guild and scheme half of the members out of their last missions' reward money through some simple tricks or games, but he rarely found time for her, something that was beginning to wear thin on her nerves.

Ignoring the slight pang in her chest at that thought, her blurry eyes focused once again on the doors of her closet and she choked back yet another loud sob. _I should go back! I should apologize and beg them to take be back in! _She knew thoughts like these were weak and half-assed and that no Fairy Tail member thought like this, but when the memory that she was no longer a Fairy Tail member came back to her, a whole new batch of piping hot tears rolled down her furiously flustered cheeks and brought the wicked thoughts back to her mind with a bitter vengeance. _I should apologize to Mira, Lisanna, Levy-chan! For the sake of Mavis, I'll buy a beer bottle for Cana and some hooker for the Master! I buy Gajeel an entire temple of iron as a simple treat for being so kind to me when I left! I'll buy Erza a bakery full of strawberry cake and I'll rent Gray the ice-rink all to himself for the rest of his life! Lisanna, oh Lisanna! I get her whatever she wants! I'll go and get her missions and drinks and food or whatever she likes! I'll even plan her and Natsu's wedding for fuck's sake-_ With that, she was on her sore feet, biting her lip to keep back cries of pain and sadness as she discarded her pillow and dove for her closet door, snatching the luggage and throwing it open on her bed in record time. As she began to tear down her clothing from hangers and out of drawer, she continued to reason with herself about her return. _Sure it might make me sad, but hell! They probably haven't even noticed I've left! It won't be a problem! I'll continue as a solo mage so Natsu and Lisanna can be partners and I'll get stronger that way! Besides, I'm probably a nuisance to Lucas and them! They haven't gone on a mission since I've been here and barely even go to the guild! I'm holding them back, just like I did with Natsu…I held him back…_

Her inner rant stopped short and her hands froze as solid arms wrapped around her, trapping her against an equally solid chest. No, these were not the burning arms of a fire mage who now haunted her every thought, or the ice-y embrace of the cool man she now thought of as a family member and a friend. No, these weren't even iron arms of her protective 'older-brother' or the satin-cushioned grip of her Lion. This was the even-temperature, bare-skinned encirclement of Lucas, the man whose magic was still a mystery to her, whose own hut was only a small bridge trip away from her own.

Even though the hug reeked of desperation and sadness, she didn't expect to hear his voice tight and begging when he whispered, "Please, don't tell me you're leaving." His voice was softer than she expected and his breath ticked her skin in ways she had only heard from in stories, but part of her reminded her that these were not the scolding hot arms she craved and another sob tore its way up her throat. Lucas' arms tightened around her forcing her to drop the clothing she had been clutching as a lifeline and take a step away from the half-packed suitcase. "Look Lucy, I may not be the most comforting person in the world right now, and I know we haven't exactly spent time together since you've been here, but I…I want you to stay." His admission was almost impossible for her to hear, despite his lips being directly at her ear. "There's something about you and I can't pinpoint it exactly, but it makes me feel happy again, and I can see it in the others too. They haven't been this jumpy and alive for quite a while now. Not since we were kids, to be honest. But you," he shook his head and let out a breathy, amused chuckle. "You come in with a half-smile, clearly saddened by something, but still manage to steal the attention of the ever-focused Nature Dragon-Slayer, the kindness of the name-implied Venom Dragon-Slayer, the entertainment of the lazy-ass Mind Dragon-Slayer, and somehow the happiness of the ever-depressed Night Dragon."

"No slayer?" Lucy mumbled out the thought without thinking, earning another amused laugh from Lucas.

"That's a story for another night…that is, if you'll stay with us, Lucy." He turned her so she sat on the bed, facing his as he held her shoulders with firm hands, fighting the temptation to lift them and wipe the streams of tears. Her body screamed that this was wrong, his touch was wrong, too cool for what she really wanted, but she ignored that part of her, pushing it down with her other abandoned hopes and dreams involving the infamous Salamander. "I'm sorry I haven't been here for you these past nights. I've listened to you cry, allowed you to suffer through all of this alone, all while knowing how tough it is to have unrequited love…" He swallowed a lump in his throat before continuing and Lucy beat down the urge to begin soothing _him_. "I'm so sorry, Lucy, I really am. But I want to be here for you now and for as long as you'll allow me, I want to comfort you, to listen to whatever is on your mind and soothe you the best I can, to stay here as long as you need me, whenever you need me, okay?"

Lucy searched his eyes for any sense of a lie, but when she found none, she nodded, allowing herself to break down once again. Softly, as though she were the most breakable of china, Lucas encircled his arms around her, moving so he coul d sit with her on his lap on the bed, resting his back again the wall as she cried desperately into his chest. He didn't bother with meaningless coos about it being okay in the end and refrained from shushing her, just allowing her to spill her tears until she was able to talk again, all while stroking her back between her shoulder-blades with a reassuringly strong hand. "What- What if they have- haven't no- noticed that I'm gone? Hu-huh?"

"Then he's a _fucking idiot_ is what," Lucas hissed, resting his head on top of hers. She was slightly surprised to hear such malice in his usually kind and calm voice. "Luce-"

"No!" She all but screeched as he uttered the dreaded nickname. He pulled back, forcing her to look at him and explain. "Anything but that, please. Anything but that stupid nickname…"

Lucas gave her a soft smile and nodded. "How about Lulu?" Lucy's mouth curved up a bit and Lucas' heart filled with joy. He hadn't been lying when he said that he wanted her to stay or that she was special, not even about having unrequited love, though he wasn't ready to share _that _story with her just yet. Lucy had something about her, in her smile, her laugh, even just the grace of her walk that immediately called out to Lucas in a way only one woman had called to him before and this time, he had no intention of letting her go, especially not to be claimed or left in the dust, unappreciated by some other man or Slayer.

"Lulu, I have a pretty good idea of your past from what Alex has showed us of your memories. That's why no one has tried to pry. Everyone here has a past that they may not be ready to completely accept or face, but with the help of each other, we've been able to work through some of our problems and begin to move on and, well, I hope I'll be the one you come to when you need something, anything, okay, Lulu?"

Lucy looked up with tear-stained eyes and couldn't help the giggle that rose in her throat as she watched the man with the magnificent eyes turn away _blushing._ She had to admit: he was more than cute, but sensitive and understanding as well. It was sort of, well, an improvement to the men she usually had around her as a result of her old guild, but even that thought didn't hurt as badly as it had only moments before. "Thank you, Lucas. Really," she yawned, snuggling into his chest. "I hope you will do the same to me to. Ya' know, trusting me and talking to me about stuff."

Laughing softly as she began to sleep, Lucas stroked some hair from her face, while cooing, "Of course, Lulu-chama~"

In her near-delirious state, Lucy opened one eye and glared half-heartedly at the man who surrounded her with comfort. "Never call me that again…" Lucas' laugh was quickly silenced when he heard the smiling, unconscious girl mutter, "Luke-y-kun~"

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**Yes! It was between Alex and Lucas, and I chose Lucas more for the plot than anything else, but Alex isn't giving up yet! **

**AND YES, THIS IS STILL A NALU 100%...just wait for the next few chapters and you'll never doubt me again XD mwahhhh!**

**Please review and PM! I love hearing from you all! It motivates me to write faster! If I could get ONE review from each of my followers and readers, I'm pretty sure I'd cry with joy...just throwing that out there...**

**~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey everyone, sorry this took so long to update! Finals are coming up and there have been a couple other complications lately, but I won't bother you with the details! Despite that, I was going to hold this chapter out for a few more months, but I feel like you all deserve this after me putting it off so long.**

* * *

Mira squealed in delight as she busted through the guild doors, effectively silencing all of its occupants. "It's here!" Several raised their eyebrows at her, most of them having been the newest members of the 'I'm going to kill Natsu for doing this to Lucy' club, while others joined in her happiness. Surprisingly enough, Gajeel was the first to reach her, Wendy not far behind. The small Slayer began dragging her to the stage without further ado, pulling her right over the guild's favorite drunk who had found a new home on the wooden floors after several drinking contests the night before. The Mages, whether knowing exactly what was happening or not, followed Mirajane to the stage, sitting around it like children awaiting a story, blinking large, hopeful eyes at the barmaid who, in response to their eagerness, sighed.

"First thing's first: where is Team Natsu? Levy?" Mira called, catching neither hair nor hide of the said member, not even her sister. As the other members searched, all coming up inconclusive, Mira began to tear open the letter. "Is everyone here?"

"Wait for me!" Master's booming voice hollered from his office. Mira and several other members couldn't help the smile that lit their faces as Master Makarov flung himself from the upstairs balcony to the stage, plopping down next to Mira with a large grin on his face. "Okay! Now we can star- _Wait!_" He yelled once more, causing everyone to groan in impatience. "Where's Alex? I thought he was coming this week!"

Even Gajeel chuckled this time at the pout on the everlasting Master's face. "No, no! This week he just sent a letter, but I'm sure he'll be around here soon…_Now_ can I start?" Everyone nodded rapidly, excitement taking over as she unfolded the neat sheet of paper. Gajeel and Wendy inhaled deeply, catching the slight whiff of what could only be described as _Lucy_ and they couldn't help the overwhelming comfort that came along with it.

_"Dear Fairy Tail,_

_She's more than I could have ever predicted! I don't think I've ever seen a more determined Mage in my entire life!"_

Several people began murmuring their missing Mage's name, already tearing up without being more than two sentences in.

_"It's been a bit over half a year since she's been away from you all, if I've counted correctly, but know that she hasn't gone a day without you all constantly coming across her thoughts, and I would know (her voice inside her head is louder than the one _outside_ of it…)"_

Gajeel's laughter boomed over everyone else's for a moment before he realized what he had done and quickly cleared his throat, signaling for Mira to continue.

_"You all have become pieces of her motivation to become stronger. It's amazing how much better she's become since she's begun since embracing her Fairy Tail spirit once more. Every day, she picks another one of her fellow Fairies and imagines herself training with them. Her images, even without my help, are truly spectacular! Whenever she runs, she pictures Jet and the blur he usually leaves behind him. In her eyes, she manages to catch up to him, running past him as she reaches the finish line. For her battle strategy, she generally pictures Freed, a man whose attacks and runes were always placed in the perfect spots. In seconds, she's begun analyzing the battlefields we've created and picking the best areas for each attack and attacker."_

The two men blushed sheepishly as those around them smiled. It was nice to see that they could help Lucy from afar and, whether or not they'd admit it, Freed and Jet found themselves very flattered that the powerful woman had chosen them as inspirations.

_"When it comes to strength, she's begun thinking more and more of Gajeel, picturing the iron scales along her body as an armor, and sometimes even Elfman, remembering him through guild brawls and mimicking some of his moves. They've been working wonders on her ability to become creative in her moves, something she usually looks to Lisanna for. It seems that Lucy, despite seeing very little of Lisanna's fighting style, has taken a liking to her manipulation of classic moves and has begun using them while sparring."_

"Oh dear," Mira giggled, placing her hand over her mouth. "This compliment will go straight to Lisanna's head."

"Mira," Bixlow whined from the floor, knees pulled up to his chest while he rested his chin on them, looking like a small child. "Keep reading, keep reading!" The guild laughed, more than they had in a while as Mira found her place in the letter again.

_"She's becoming smarter by the day, reading people like an open book, thanks to Mwah~! And you can't imagine what's been happening here as a result! We took her to the guild for the first time two days ago and because she's been reading people so well, she began pretending to be Mira and started playing match-maker with those around her. When they were off-guard, she seemed to become Laxus, using what the good-Gods gave her in order to knock them completely out (not saying you're a chick, Laxus, just saying that you know how to use what you have against people… Don't zap me when I visit please… I still have a mark from the last one…)"_

Silence

Silence

Silence

"He's being zapped." Laxus growled. "And so is she…"

_"After wiping the blood off of everything, we figured that she earned some 90,000 Jewels! Cory's still trying to convince her to split it with him but he's become just as sneaky as he is and has become quite the fair match against him in any sort of a card game. Her secret, it seems, is to drink three or four barrels of beer or rum before even touching the cards. Says it gives her luck."_

"That's my girl!" Cana hollered drunkenly, now sitting on the table closest to the stage, a large barrel of beer in her lap.

_"I'm amusing that since we haven't been chased down by a pink haired moron yet that they haven't figured it out, but with everything that has been happening lately down here between Lucy and Lucas, maybe a break from him in really what she needed."_

"I swear if that freak lays one hand on my sister-" Gajeel's angered growl was cut off by a loud squeal from Mira, Juvia, and Evergreen.

"They're names go perfect together!" They hollered simultaneously.

"And his _eyes_-"

"_Oh_ his _hair-_"

"And that _body-_"

Bisca was about to add a comment when she caught Alzack's eye and quickly shut her mouth.

"Get back to the letter before I have to beat someone down in order to feel manly again!" Macao called, effectively silencing the girls and ignoring the comments of him beginning to sound like Elfman.

_"Ultimately though, this letter has come with a warning. Lucas isn't exactly what can be known as stable. I've been keeping track of his thoughts as well as I can, but last night, his and Lucy's minds have begun to take different ideals of the future. Lucas sees his with Lucy, which wouldn't be horrible if he also wasn't picturing Natsu's grave somewhere in the background-"_

"Aren't we all picturing his grave lately?" Pantherlily muttered, earning a raised eyebrow from nearly everyone. "I say one thing…" He trailed off with a shake of his head and a sigh, knowing that the others agreed with him, whether they were willing to admit it or not. "Please, dear Mira, continue with the letter."

_"And Lucy's, well, I'm not all too sure what to make of it. Some days, she pictures herself back at Fairy Tail, occasionally with only us there, sometimes with Natsu and us, and other times, just without Lucas. Other times, she pictures horrible futures where only scenes seemed to be able to pop through, though generally they are bloody and gruesome, often with Lucy facing off against either Lucas or Natsu. There are times where all three face off against each other and other times where she finds herself hopeless to help as they tear each other apart-"_

"Kinky~" Bixlow snickered, earning glares from several guild members as well as a slap across the helmet from Laxus. "Sorry, sorry…"

_"But one dream seems to replay continuously, where Natsu chooses Lisanna over her in a deadly situation caused by his own fire. In the dream, Lucy is relieved to see that Lisanna is merely asleep beside her as Lucy herself in torn apart, bleeding out and being cut up. Natsu eventually comes running in and grabs Lisanna. When Lucy asks for help, Natsu glares and tells her to become stronger before leaving her to burn in his own mess. She wakes up nearly each time crying, sobbing loud enough that each of us have woken up one night or another. Since she's been becoming stronger, the dream has been happening less and less, but still, I beg of you to warn me the moment Natsu and his team find out that she is gone so I can keep a distance between them for a bit, for I fear that this may be a sign of a future pain. _

_Other than that, there have been few problems. With Lucy's power seeming to match that of a Dragon Slayer, I've convinced Lucas to allow us to take her on her first mission later this month and I hope to hear from you all before we leave so we don't have to wait months before conversing once more. _

_Be careful Fairy Tail and know that Lucy's love and faith will always be with you._

_Sincerely, Your Favorite Informant,_

_Alex"_

Silence lingered around the Mages as they processed the end of the message. The signal towards danger had everyone's shackles raised and Gajeel shared a look with Laxus and Mira, all three inwardly debating on whether or not to set up a meeting place and speak with Alex personally.

"Leave her be," Makarov sighed. "She's a strong young woman with nakama surrounding her. She will be safe." The others stiffly nodded and began to disperse, and not a moment too soon, considering Lisanna suddenly busted through the doors, looking like her older sister had not an hour prior.

"We-we're back! A-and I wa-want to read tha-that _letter_!" Lisanna called before tackling Mira off of the stage and behind the bar, wrestling around for a moment before prying the letter out of her sister's hands. After blinking at the rare show several times, the rest of the guild members went back to doing their usual activities.

Mira quickly called Cana over. "Would you do me a small favor, Cana, and-"

"Relax, Mira, I'm already doing a reading," the suddenly sober Card Mage winked at Mira as she laid her cards out and began to take a reading. After several moments of calmness in the usually rowdy guild, the rest of Lisanna's company joined the party, quickly dispersing to their separate areas temporarily.

"Hey Mira!" Natsu called out from across the guild. She didn't seem to notice, clearly focused on her conversation with Cana, both of whom had their faces scrunched in worry and slight annoyance. He ran over to the two of them and only when Natsu was sitting at the bar for about five minutes did he finally get their attention.

"Oh, Natsu!" Mira exclaimed in surprise. Cana, seeing him sitting there, quickly put her cards away, an action she had been doing a lot lately over the past several months, ever since his team had come back from their first mission with Lisanna, but he knew that if something terrible was going to happen, she'd tell everyone, so Natsu didn't bother to question her, though the constant drunken glare he received from her was a bit unsettling. "What can I get for you?" She tried to smile, but it was so overly clear that it was forced that even the dense moron could see it.

The pink-haired Slayer heard multiple pairs of footsteps behind him but didn't care, already knowing who they belonged to. As Team Natsu gathered around him, Levy and Gajeel took their seats near them at the bar.

"Mira, where's Lucy? I wanted to know if I could borrow Virgo for a project with Happy!" Natsu beamed at Mira as Happy flew to the group.

"Aye! We want to tunnel under the river and get the ninja fish that lay at the bottom! Nin nin," he said is a hushed voice, raising one leg and wrapping Mira's dish towel around his blue face like a ninja.

While we laughed at Happy's ninja impression, Natsu nearly missed the terrified look Mira gave Cana and Lisanna, but before he could even ask, Levy chimed in with, "What was that?"

"What was what?" The three girls quickly asked in unison, their voices and fake smiles being sickly sweet.

Levy narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of, where is Lu-chan anyway? She wasn't here yesterday-"

Levy's accusing voice was cut off by Gajeel's grunt of frustration, earning him some confused and annoyed looks from our group. "Can we just tell them already! They'll find out eventually!" he groaned, rolling his neck in boredom.

Mira gasped and whacked him rather roughly with her towel, earning herself a glare from the Iron Dragon-Slayer. "We could have held out for a few more months! She's gonna be mad at us!" Gajeel just snorted, sincerely uncaring about whoever this person was being mad at him.

There was suddenly two very dark auras next to Natsu, one Levy's and the other Erza's. He shrank back, hiding behind Gray and Lisanna. "What is going on?" They said in unison, much like the three before them had done, but this had a terrifying affect, one that made even the guild's Demon begin to sweat.

Something unconsciously within Natsu clicked as his sharp gaze was suddenly as tight on Mira and the others as anyones could have been, but the fierce concentration of everyone's stare was broken apart by a blinding flash of light in the center of the guild. Battle stances were quickly assumed, but before Igneel's son could get serious, he was overwhelmed by the scent of honey, strawberry, vanilla, and...stars? "Lucy...?" It came out as a whisper and Natsu's heart nearly stopped as he continued to stare into the blinding light, waiting for the bright Celestial Mage to come prancing through with the beaming smile on her face all while complaining loudly about the missing half of the reward that was truly somehow all his fault despite there being two rather destructive mages on their team other than him.

Instead of such a wonderful sight, the knowing people of the guild were met with the different wonderful sight of a fist being crashed directly into the awaited Mage's face, sending him flying into the bottle racks behind the bar with a satisfying crash. Slowly, people began to uncover their faces, adjusting their eyes again as the light dimmed and vanished, and watch with sadistic joy as Loke's murderous form stepped forward from the white light he had appeared through and approached the stunned Slayer on the floor. "Huh- Loke? Where's Lu-" Natsu was cut off as Loke yanked him up by the edges of his vest, fists glowing menacingly as he held Natsu nearly a foot above the ground.

"You have no right to speak my Master's name, you pathetic, wannabe lizard!" The words came out as a dangerous hiss and Natsu, surprisingly enough, seemed to understand how serious Loke was about this fight. Without giving the boy time to get his few wits about him, Loke flung Natsu high into the air before calling the power of Regulus to his fist and smashing the pink-haired Mage down into the guild's wooden flooring. Tables and Mages were quickly pushed and pulled to the sides as Natsu rose, flames gathering to his fists as he put Loke and Mirajane's words into context.

"Is Lucy mad at us? Did she send you here-?" Natsu's devious sneer, one that felt vile enough to catch Natsu himself off-guard, was quickly wiped off his face as he barely avoided another Regulus Punch, bending back just in time to steer clear.

"As I said, Lizard," Loke ignored Natsu's snarl at the demeaning nickname. "You wave no right to speak my Master's name, let alone of her intentions." Loke wanted so much more than to just bloody the boy up, especially knowing that he had his master's newly found strength to back him, but he couldn't pull magic out from Lucy without her knowing which would lead to questions that he would never be able to honestly answer without upsetting her. Loke watched as the man who had stolen Lucy's heart forced himself up from the ground, spitting out a thick wad of blood before meeting Loke's eyes. "What do you think of my Master, Dragon Boy? How do you feel now that she's gone?"

Natsu swallowed thickly, glaring deeply at Celestial Spirit. "What do you mean, gone?"

The dark chuckle that came from the old guild member sent shivers down the audience's spines. The orange-haired man stalked towards Natsu as a predator would to prey and Natsu, surprisingly weakened by so few attacks, could do little more than attempt to stand and hope not to break any more bones then Loke already had. "Oh Natsu," he sighed; but the threatening undertone was not lost. "I just don't understand you. For the years that I've known you, you've been loyal, kind, attentive, and a wonderfully powerful Mage, and because of that I've allowed My Princess to stand by you, to risk herself for you-"

"I've never asked Lucy to risk herself-" Natsu began to snarl, but was cut off by another fist to the gut, forcing him to double over and groan on the floor as Loke snarled from above him.

"But she did! She did because she _cared!_" Angry winds blew around Loke with his exponential swell of magical power, blowing his hair in a disarray that made him seem like a real lion. Even Cana and Gajeel were silenced by the powerful sight. "Now let me speak you failure or I will break Spiritual Law and slaughter you!" Natsu sent him a sharp glare once more from the ground, but made no other move to show resistance. "Now, as I had been saying, Lucy went out of her way to go on missions with you, to be around you despite the fact that you did little more then attract danger, which Lucy would always get wrapped up in. Yes," like raised his hand to silence Natsu's protest, "You always managed to save her in the end, but now, where are you?"

Now Natsu was just confused. Where was he? "I'm here, in the guild, Loke... Are you okay?" Had this been a less serious situation, Loke would have face-palmed, but instead, he smashed his foot against Natsu's already weakened chest, forcing him back against the floor where he struggled fruitlessly against Loke's immense strength.

"Think correctly you idiot! Think! Where is Lucy-"

"Loke!" Mora scolded darkly, cutting off Loke's seething, but he paid her absolutely no mind.

"Where are you in relation to Lucy? Where has she been?" Loke bared his teeth down at the boy until his struggles slowly began to slow until they came to a stop. Natsu's face paled as he put everything together.

His eyes snapped up to Loke's and the Spirit felt satisfied with himself as he finally saw what he had been waiting for this whole time in the boy's eyes, pain, worry, and, most of all, fear, not for himself, but for Lucy. "Wh-where is she? Please, L-Loke, where is she?" Natsu made a grab for the ginger's collar but his hands merely swiped through the fading boy who wore a small smirk. "Loke-"

"Find her, Natsu." The loyal Spirit muttered, backing away. "Find her and save her, even if it's from herself."

"Loke!" Natsu launched upwards, lunging through the shimmers the man left behind as he returned to his world. The pink-haired Mage crouched on the floor, panting as he took everything in, from his physical pain to his newfound emotional strain. "Lucy..." his breath was merely a whisper as it slipped past his lips, but his moment of revelation was cut short by his brother Slayer.

"You guys are all idiots," Gajeel snarled, eyes boring into Natsu's back. "Even Lisanna saw this, but you dumbasses were so caught up in yourselves and the fact that Lisanna was back that you didn't notice that Bunny Girl left." He nonchalantly blew a hair from his face as he waited for some sort of response, but the unknowing Mages were all frozen, each having their face contorted in some response to this revelation, but, despite the fact that the woman he knew to be his future mate was sitting not two feet away with unshed tears filling her eyes, Gajeel was solely focused on Natsu.

_Gone? No, not gone! She wouldn't leave on a mission without us! It was probably just some easy little thing for rent money...right?_ My mind began to go into panic mode at the thought of her taking a difficult mission. _What if she got hurt? Lost her keys? Got lost? Oh god! Lucy could be anywhere! Why was Loke here, though? Shouldn't _he _of all people be with Lucy?_

I slammed my fist down onto the floor, smashing in another large dent under my steaming fists, gaining the guild's attention. "Mira-" I choked slightly on my own fury. "P-please! Tell me, wh-what job is she on?" I looked directly into Mira's eyes so I would know if she dared to try and lie to me. The barmaid swallowed hard, a noise I could hear from several feet away as she was obviously uncomfortable under my harsh gaze, but I refused to let up.

"Well, uhm, see Natsu..." she bit her lip in nervousness and tears began to prick her eyes. It wasn't normal for Mira to cry. No, if it was something we would control, she'd be in Satan Soul mode, ready to slaughter whoever took away the blonde whom she has considered a sister over the time we've all been together, so seeing such a desperate look breaking through her facade did nothing to help the situation and I felt my blazing blood suddenly run cold.

I launched forward once more, but this time met my target as I nearly flew across the guild,

landing directly in front of the woman, sitting on my knees on top of the bar, grasping Mira's shaking shoulders, silently begging for answers with my eyes before I had to beg with a barely controlled voice. "Mira, where's Luce? Where is my Lucy?"

The tears began to pour over, but by the overwhelming stench of salt, I realized that not only she was crying, but nearly everyone besides me and Gray were all beginning to tear up. "Natsu," Mira whispered, gaining my full attention once more. "She's not on a job. She's- She's gone. She left the guild- and don't bother looking at her place," she quickly added seeing me begin to turn and make a run for her apartment. "She's been gone for a while now, Natsu. Lucy has been no longer a part of Fairy Tail for seven months."

Silence. Dead, painful silence. Dead... Just like my hope...

_No_. My mind repeated the word over and over again in the thick silence of Fairy Tail. _She couldn't be gone... She loves Fairy Tail, right? Fairy Tail and me! She loves us, right? Why wouldn't she say goodbye...?_ I felt the tears begin to drip down my face and vaguely noticed the shocked looks on every one's faces. _Why did she leave? No! She wouldn't leave!_

I tilted my head downwards, using my bangs to cover my expression as I closed my eyes tightly. "Mira," my hoarse voice managed to choke out. "Tell me- Please, please tell me that this is all just some sick," I swallowed hard, forcing down the bile that threatened to make an appearance. "Some disgusting joke..." I waited, but when she didn't answer, I felt my heart nearly stop. "I mean, she wouldn't leave us, right? Cause- cause who would accompany her? She doesn't like being alone all the time, and where would she go? She doesn't like walking for too long... What if she gets hurt out there or runs into trouble?" I began to notice my voice becoming more hysterical, cracking in certain parts of my questioning as it rose through several levels of octaves. I felt my body shake, legs becoming weaker beneath me as I backed further away from the group as the bar. "No, she couldn't _leave!_ Not without _someone_ to protect her! _Not without me!_ Lucy wouldn't leave without me! _She wouldn't leave me behind, not without saying goodbye!"_ I was screaming now, fists clenched at my sides, my nails drawing blood on the inside of my palms as I struggled to keep standing. My cheeks were now drenched in salty tears which were quickly turning to steam as I began to heat up once more. My throat felt scratched and strained. It was slowly becoming hard to breathe, hard to concentrate on the matter at hand. Seven months, seven months Lucy had been gone. Seven months... And then it clicked.

My head snapped up and I immediately felt a rage take control, a rage of such power I had never felt before lighting my body up in an unbelievable fire, one that, I vaguely noticed in my state, licked the rafts of the guild's ceiling, blacking them nearly immediately. My group quickly backed up, all except Gray and Gajeel, both of whom knew me well enough that I wouldn't allow this fire to touch them, no matter how furious I was.

"You all knew, and you all kept this from me for _seven months_? _Seven months! _You all kept me in the dark for so long, knowing that she could be in danger without me there to protect her, knowing that she was all alone out there with no help! _How could you?_" my voice was cracking again as the tears came heavier, but my fire roared just as strong.

No one dared move or speak, staring at me as though I had just grown a second head and third eye. No one moved except for Gajeel, who stepped forward, coming dangerously close to my fire. I growled, but he didn't move back. In fact, Gray joined him on the opposite side. "Back off," I hissed, but the threat in my voice was weak. They moved closer, nearly being burned, but I struggled to reduce the fire, desperately trying not to hurt them. I was mad, no, I was past mad. I was furious deep within my soul, but I still wasn't going to hurt my nakama. Gajeel took another step forward, followed by Gray and I reduced my fire a bit more. "I'm serious!" I yelled, unable to stop the tears.

Without warning, Gajeel lunged directly into my fire, grabbing my arms behind my back and tackling me to the floor. "Gajeel!" Levy screamed and rushed forward, but was held back by Erza.

"Put down the fire, Salamander. As dragon slayers, you and I need to have a talk." His voice was calm, but clearly threatening as he pressed me tighter to the ground. Knowing if I held it up much longer he could be seriously injured, I lowered my flame, but still struggled to keep calm. "Good, now, I'm gonna let you up and you're calmly going to walk out of the guild with me and Gray. Not a single word until we get to our destination, got it, Natsu?" Hearing him call me by my actual name surprised me a bit, but I nodded once.

Without hesitation, he snapped me up, half dragging me towards the guild doors, Gray's icy presence following quietly behind us.

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**So...hope y'all like it! 3 Please review...**

**As always, love hearing from you guys.**

**~ The Infamous Smile of Mona Lisa**


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